Rivals
by Shado Librarian
Summary: Things start getting tense at the Daily Planet when the rival Metropolis Star gets a new prize-winning reporter - Clark Kent.
1. Chapter 1

Copyright May 3, 2008

* * *

**A/N**: another stand-alone. Not part of either the **Shadows** series or **All I Have to Give**.

* * *

It was shaping up to be another wretched day at the Daily Planet newsroom Richard White mused as he headed out of his office looking for a cup of coffee, especially for the assistant editor – namely himself. The newsroom coffee corner was out. The cackling hens, male and female, were holding court as usual and he didn't want to run the gauntlet of questions about Lois's mood.

To describe Lois Lane as 'irritable' was an understatement. The Daily Planet had been scooped yet again by the Metropolis Star – this time a crane failure at the site of a new high-rise. Being beaten out by the Star had been happening more and more in the past month, ever since Preston Carpenter took over the helm of the rival paper. The Star had even managed to get at an exclusive interview with Superman for their pages, to Lois's outraged horror.

The Star's sudden success was also affecting the Planet's bottom-line. Orders had already come down from the bean counters to tighten the purse-strings on overtime and expense account meals.

Then to add insult to injury Clark Kent hadn't shown up for work and, as far as Richard knew, hadn't called in sick. Normally Kent's absence wouldn't be a problem, but the newsroom was short-staffed this week due to the flu and Kent, although something of a clumsy dork, was an editor's dream – a consistently high volume writer who had little need of editing. In the two months since Kent's return, Richard had come to rely on the reporter's consistency and his nose for news, although Richard would never tell Lois that.

Richard rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a headache coming on. He desperately needed a caffeine fix. He desperately needed some fresh air. The elevators seemed to be taking their own sweet time in getting to the thirtieth floor.

"Mister White?"

A man's voice. Richard looked around the elevator lobby to see who was speaking to him. A figure stepped out from around the corner where the emergency stairs were located. A familiar muscular figure wearing blue tights and a red cape.

"Superman?"

The hero stepped closer to him.

"I wanted to make sure you got this," Superman said, handing Richard an envelope. Richard stared at the envelope for a moment. It was a common business envelope, unsealed, no return address. It was hand-addressed to him, _Richard White, Daily Planet_. The writing was precise, almost architectural.

"Why me?" Richard asked. "Why not Lois? I mean…"

"I have my reasons, Mister White," Superman said.

Richard pulled out the single sheet and unfolded it. It was a press release, in Daily Planet style, stating that Superman would be spending less time in Metropolis than he had before as he was needed in other places and the Metropolis Police and Fire Departments were more than capable of handling emergencies, as they had proven so ably during his earlier absence from the planet Earth.

"You should have done this before you left last time," Richard said, surprised that he had the courage to berate the most powerful man on the planet. "It would have saved us a lot of worry."

To Richard's surprise, Superman sighed. He couldn't read the hero's expression – regret, disappointment?

"In point of fact, I did," Superman said quietly. "I had a press release and a letter delivered to Miss Lane at her desk the day I left Metropolis. It wasn't until my return, when I read the back issues of the Daily Planet, that I realized my letter… that it hadn't been read."

"You're certain it was even delivered?" Richard asked. It wasn't like Lois to ignore mail, especially mail delivered by messenger.

"I'm absolutely positive," Superman told him. "Clark Kent placed it in her hand and told her it was important. I don't know what happened to the letter after that." As Richard watched, Superman stared off into the distance. He seemed troubled, a slight sad frown marring his perfectly chiseled face. He seemed almost human.

"Have you ever seen the movie 'Immortal Beloved'?"

Richard was startled by the change of subject. He hadn't realized Superman even had time to watch movies. After a moment he found his voice. "It's about Beethoven, isn't it?"

Superman nodded. "One of the main plot points involves a letter. He sent it ahead to his mistress to let her know he was on his way but was running late. It's delivered, but she never sees it and assumes she's been stood up. He assumes she has rejected him. Not quite as tragic as Romeo and Juliet, but tragic nonetheless."

"Well, I'll make sure this one doesn't get lost," Richard told the other man, again surprised by his own audacity.

In response, Superman actually smiled.

"Um, speaking of Clark Kent, you wouldn't happen to know why he didn't show up to work today, would you?" Richard asked, emboldened by Superman's apparent good humor. As far as the editor knew, this was the longest, and strangest, conversation anyone had with the hero since his return from his ill-conceived journey to Krypton.

Almost as if to answer Richard's question, Lois screamed in rage. He looked into the newsroom to see his fiancée waving around a copy of the Star. After a few seconds he could make out some of the words. "I swear to God I'll kill him!" was about the only phrase that wasn't an obscenity. The rest of the newsroom was watching her as if a wild animal had suddenly appeared in their midst and they were trying to decide between fight and flight. In contrast, Perry was standing at his office door, shaking his head.

Superman chuckled. "I think Lois just found out why Clark isn't here."

-o-o-o-

"I swear Perry, I'll kill him…" Lois was still ranting. Luckily she was now doing her raving in the relative quiet of the editor-in-chief's office rather than the floor of the newsroom. Perry White calmly waited for his star reporter to wind down. It wasn't the first time she'd had a melt-down in the newsroom and it probably wouldn't be the last. But this was one of her worst – worse than the first time Kent disappeared, six years before.

Finally, Lois stopped her pacing to face him, hands on his desk as his nephew walked in. Richard closed the door behind him and waited.

"How could you let him do it? Didn't he have a contract, a non-compete?" Lois demanded, ignoring her fiancé.

Perry took his time before answering. "Lois, we both know New Troy is an at will state. I couldn't enforce the non-compete clause even if I wanted to. Besides, I think he did you a favor, breaking the story like that. The mayor's scheduled a news conference _after_ our deadline and we both know she's going to deny every allegation and piece of evidence your source gave you so I figure it's a good thing we _didn't_ go to print with what you had."

"But Perry, he stole my story and gave it to that…that… rag!" Lois fumed.

"Lois, this isn't the first time you've had a story stolen from you," Perry stated. "But if you're that upset with Kent, go find him and yell at him, not me. I have a newspaper to run."

Lois didn't budge. Perry attempted to ignore her, sitting down at his desk and picking up some papers to look over.

"This discussion is over, Lois," Perry stated. "Unless you want to tell me what you have planned to replace the story about the mayor. I have about a thousand words to fill."

He felt her eyes on him and he looked up. "And accusing Kent of stealing your story is certainly a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Who was it that sent you on that wild Godzilla chase to the Metropolis Water Reclamation Center, and why?"

To Perry's amusement, Lois actually snapped her mouth shut. Perry took the opportunity to give his nephew a nod of acknowledgement. Richard handed him the sheet of paper he'd been holding.

"I promised Superman it wouldn't get lost this time," Richard explained.

Perry unfolded the sheet and skimmed the contents. He wasn't surprised at what he was reading. It was only a matter of time before Superman realized the world needed him more than Metropolis alone did. He handed the sheet back to Richard. "Run it exactly as it is," Perry instructed. "It'll fill that hole in my front page very nicely."

Lois grabbed the sheet from Richard and read it. She actually went a little pale. "He's leaving Metropolis?"

"Not exactly," Richard said. "He's just not going to be spending as much time here as before."

"But what about…?" Lois began then stopped.

"What about what?" Perry asked, curious.

"Never mind," Lois said. "I just wonder why he didn't bother to issue a press release six years ago."

"According to him, he did," Richard told her. "He had Kent give it to you the day he left. Somehow you never managed to read it."

"But…" Lois began. Then she turned and stalked out of Perry's office, slamming the glass door behind her.

"That actually went better than I thought it would," Perry commented. He chuckled at Richard's confused expression but he wasn't about to explain himself.

The next few weeks were going to be very interesting. Perry just hoped the Daily Planet survived it.


	2. Chapter 2

To Richard's relief, Lois had calmed down a little by the time they got Jason from afterschool care and arrived home. At least she had stopped swearing about Kent stealing her story. Instead of swearing she was muttering under her breath what she planned to do to the Midwesterner once she caught up with him. Saving Kent from Lane sounded like a job for Superman.

Jason kept giving his mother curious looks on the drive home. Richard hoped Jason couldn't hear his mother's muttering but considering how good Jason's hearing was, Richard was sure he was going to be explaining things he didn't want to.

It was Richard's turn to do dinner. He ran over the day's events once again as Lois set the table. A few things stood out as odd. One, Perry didn't seem overly surprised at Kent's defection, or that he'd taken one of Lois's stories with him. In fact, Perry had been defending Kent's actions in a backhanded way.

And then there was Lois's reaction to Superman's claim that she'd been given a letter from him before he left for Krypton.

"Daddy, what's a 'turncoat'?" Jason asked innocently as he helped Richard toss the salad.

"It's an old word for traitor," Richard explained. So much for Jason not hearing Lois's angry mutters.

"Why is Mommy calling Mister Clark names under her breath?"

Richard sighed. This was going to be even harder than he'd thought. Kent was one of the few people in the newsroom who Jason actually liked and seemed to like him back. "Mister Clark went to work for another newspaper and Mommy's not happy about that."

"Why did Mister Clark leave?"

"I don't know, Jason," Richard admitted.

"Is he going to come back?"

"I don't know that either, munchkin."

"Did Mommy and Mister Clark have another argument?"

"No," Lois said from the dining room.

"Yes," Richard corrected.

Jason frowned, trying to balance the conflicting information.

"Yes," Lois said after a moment. "Mommy and Mister Clark had a couple arguments about work. And then he took something Mommy had been working very hard on and gave it to somebody else."

"Oh," was Jason's only comment.

"Uh, Lois, have you read Clark's story in the Star?" Richard asked. She glared at him, answering his question. She hadn't bothered.

"Clemens dropped his investigation into the mayor's campaign finances," Richard continued. "I know you'd been working hard on that story, and until yesterday it really did look like it was going to the grand jury. But you know Clark had serious doubts about it. He was right, and frankly I wonder if your sources hadn't been leading you on."

"And why would anybody do that?" Lois asked.

"Lois, I know it sounds paranoid, but considering how things have been going the last month, I wouldn't bet against somebody in the mayor's office going out of their way to embarrass the Planet by feeding you false information."

"But who?" Lois asked. "And why?"

"Maybe that's something you need to be looking into," Richard suggested. It was like a switch had been thrown. Lois had been furious about her story being stolen, but now she had something else to work on, something deeper: the story behind the story. Now she was focused instead of angry, and woe betide the person or persons who set out to humiliate Lois Lane.

Dinner was relatively quiet. Jason chattered on about school and the upcoming holidays. Finally, after dinner, Richard had the chance to ask his next question. "Honey, what do you think happened to that first press release? The one Superman said he left."

Lois sat back in her chair and sipped her wine. "I really don't know," she admitted. "I'm guessing it fell off my desk and ended up in recycling or the trash." She took a deep breath and blew it out her nose. "I remember Clark giving me an envelope and telling me it was important. I may have even started to open it. Then one of my sources called about something and I ran off to meet them. When I got back to my desk the envelope was gone. I figured I'd see Clark the next day, so I didn't worry about it."

"Only…?"

"Only that was the last time I saw Clark until he came back from his trip," Lois said. "I don't even remember if he said good bye. I'm sure he must have, but I was so wrapped up in that story, I probably didn't hear him." She sighed. "He was a best friend I had and I didn't even have the courtesy to notice that he'd packed up his desk. And now he goes and…"

"Lois, we don't know why…" Richard started.

"Oh no?" Lois asked. "Linda King flashed her skirt at him and he's off after her like a dog sniffing up a bitch in heat."

"Lois, we don't know that…"

She didn't seem to hear him. "I thought he was still my friend," she murmured. "I guess I was wrong about him."

"Honey, what is it about Linda King that sets you off?" Richard asked. "I know I've asked before, but you never gave me an answer."

"Aside from the fact that she's unscrupulous, unprincipled and will do anything, and I do mean anything, to get a leg up on the competition?" Lois said with the same sweet tone she used when someone took the last donut or Perry assigned her to cover something inane. The tone that said 'back off or even Superman won't be able to save you.'

Richard chose to ignore it. Lois may have had the rest of the newsroom cowed but he'd been living with her long enough to know how much of her demeanor was a bluff.

After a long moment Lois began to speak. "Linda and I went to high school and college together. We were best friends, both majored in journalism. She was the pretty blonde all the guys liked. I was always just one of the boys… don't get me wrong. I never minded being one of the boys. But then… The editor of the university newspaper was a boy name of Paul and he was bright and gorgeous and I fell for him _so_ hard. I would have done anything for him. I had finished a major assignment for the paper, everything was great… then I caught him and Linda making out in his office. And to add insult to injury, she had taken my assignment and put her name on it. She didn't even have the courtesy to apologize for stealing my work."

"Ouch," Richard said. "That must have hurt. Did you ever talk to her about it?"

Lois nodded. "She told me that all was fair in love and war and I'd lost. We didn't speak again for a long time. In fact, I'd lost track of her until I saw her at that arson fire last week. That first one _I_ was scooped on."

**Several days before:**

It had been cold that day, the sky leaden and promising snow. Even the newsroom seemed cold and Perry's irritable attitude wasn't making things any better. One of the interns was in the corner listening to the police scanner while the rest of the staff gathered around a grim looking Perry.

Someone had set up an easel with copies of the Planet and the Star pinned up side by side along with some sales charts. The Planet's sedate headline read 'Council to Debate Coliseum'. Not the most scintillating headline, Lois would be the first to admit, but it was an important topic dealing with whether or not the city should agree spend millions of dollars to build the Metropolis Tigers a new playing venue against the threat of the team moving to Coast City.

The Star's headline was pure checkout stand tabloid: 'Crooks 1, Cops 0!' Most of what was in their lead article was equally overblown. The police had admitted it had no leads on a jewelry store robbery in Midtown. Perry hadn't even considered the story important enough to go on the front page – it was buried on the third page of the Daily Planet.

Perry gestured to the easel. "The sales department just sent this little reminder up for us. I'll make it easy for you. It says that since Preston Carpenter bought the Metropolis Star and started spending money like there's no tomorrow, the Star's been selling twice as many papers as the Planet, news stand and subscription. Anybody know how?"

Lois couldn't help herself. "Bigger type, smaller words?"

Perry glared at her. "Uh-uh. Carpenter's got people out-hustling us on the streets, Lois. In the last month they've scooped us on nearly _every_ major news story in this city. Now what am I going to lead the next edition with that's going to change that?"

"Secretary Wallace is in town to sign that nuclear arms treaty with Omir," Richard reminded Perry. "We're waiting to hear on a one-on-one."

"One of his aides just got in touch with me," Clark managed to say from the back of the room. "We're on for tomorrow."

"I can see them lining up at the news stands for that," Lois commented. The treaty signing with Omir was a photo-op for Wallace, nothing else.

"Have you got something better?" the editor growled at her.

"Police charity scams?" she suggested, knowing that wasn't exactly what he was looking for. "At least it's local," she defended herself. Since Superman's return, the crime rate had been going down. It was good for the citizens of Metropolis but it made it harder to find good stories for the City section.

"People, people," Perry shouted to get everyone's attention. "For fifty years the Daily Planet's been number one in this town and the Metropolis Star's been number two and not trying very hard. That's changed. Now I don't mean to be an alarmist, but if we don't start getting some big stories of our own, the faces around here may start changing. We need a good scandal, or a crime wave or a..."

"Hotel fire!" the intern yelled from his station.

"That'll do," Perry agreed.

"There's a woman trapped on a ledge of the Metropolitan," the intern explained, pointing at the scanner. "The fire department's ladders can't reach her."

"Lane, Olsen! Move it!" Perry ordered.

Without another word, Lois grabbed her coat, purse and notepad. She ran to the elevator without even checking to see if Jimmy was following.

-o-o-o-

The Metropolitan was one of those high-rise hotels that had started out posh but was now running down at the heels for various reasons – disinterested ownership, the economy, the high cost of competent labor, whatever the blame game chose for that day.

Inky smoke poured out of the upper story windows, blackening the already dark sky. Lois maneuvered her car into an alley and set out on foot the last few blocks to the scene with Jimmy right beside her.

Jimmy was snapping photos as he followed her. Lois spotted the woman on the ledge. Smoke was pouring around her.

Then a blue and red blur swooped down from the sky and the woman disappeared. _Superman_.

Another block and Lois and Jimmy were among the bystanders watching the firefighters. A woman was being helped to an ambulance. There was no sign of Superman. But Lois caught sight of an unpleasantly familiar face. A blonde woman was chatting cheerfully into a cell phone.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Lois demanded.

Linda King smiled brightly at her. "Nice to see you, too, Lois. What's it been, twelve years since graduation? Unfortunately, you haven't changed a bit."

"Look, Linda, I don't want to go there," Lois stated. "Where's Superman?"

"You just missed him," Linda said, still smiling brightly. "He was very helpful. Even gave me a quote for my story."

"_Your_ story…?"

"Haven't figured it out yet? I'm working for the Star," Linda said without losing her smile. "And you've just been scooped."

-o-o-o-

Lois couldn't believe how wrong her day had gone: first Perry on the warpath because the Star was cutting into their sales, then Linda King gloating over scooping her _and_ getting a quote from Superman. Lois tried to focus on her notes and the other papers in front of her as she sipped her coffee in the coffee shop off the Planet lobby. She wasn't ready to head back to the bullpen to face Richard and Perry. It was too humiliating.

Jimmy had headed upstairs to give Perry the photos he got, including one of Superman saving the woman who'd been trapped. At least Jimmy had a decent day.

"Uh, so you got scooped. It happens" Clark was saying from across the small table. Somehow he had found her hiding in the coffee shop and was now determinedly set on cheering her up. "You just have to, uh, focus on the next story."

"Spare me the Smallville pep talk," Lois complained "I wasn't _just_ scooped. A hideous part of my past has reared its ugly thieving head."

Clark managed a chuckle. "Never let it be said that Lois Lane doesn't have a flair for the dramatic."

Lois gave him a sharp look then relented. "I'm sorry Clark. It was just a very horrible surprise seeing her there. And then Superman didn't stick around…"

"I'm sure he just needed to be somewhere else," Clark suggested reasonably. "It's a big city. Maybe there was a mugging or something."

"Pity it wasn't _her_."

"Lois!"

"You don't know this woman, Clark," Lois stated firmly. "She has no conscience. She couldn't even spell it."

Clark smiled and intoned: "It was a dark day for the Daily Planet when Linda King rode into town."

"Go ahead. Mock me," Lois said. "But I warn you, there are no depths to which she won't stoop for a story... or anything else for that matter."

"Do I detect the scent of jealousy?" Clark asked. She looked sharply at him again but there was nothing in his face to indicate anything other than mild amusement at her over-reaction. A movement outside the coffee shop doors caught her eye and she looked up to see Linda King breeze through the door.

"You detect the smell of a rat," Lois corrected. "And it just scurried in."

Linda seemed to home in on Lois, striding across the marble floor as if she owned the building.

"Hello, Lois. I thought we could get re-acquainted," Linda said, stopping at Lois and Clark's table. Lois ignored her, making a show of reading her notes.

"Or not," Linda added. She turned to Clark, who had risen from his chair, and extended her hand. Lois seethed as Linda poured on the charm.

"Well, hello. I'm Linda King," the woman practically cooed.

"Clark Kent," Clark introduced himself. "I've heard a lot about you."

Linda chuckled, a deep throaty sound some would describe as sexy. "From Lois? Let me guess. No conscience. Will stoop to anything."

"See?" Lois said, not raising her head.

"She's kidding," Clark told Linda.

"No I'm not," Lois corrected. She spotted Linda trying to read her notes and hurriedly shuffled them together. She stuffed them into her briefcase. "I'll see you upstairs," she told Clark as she walked away.

After a moment she realized he was still talking to Linda. Lois was too far away to eavesdrop and she wasn't going to give Linda the pleasure of watching her move closer. Clark nodded and smiled at the woman and finally, Linda moved off.

As soon as the other reporter was out of sight, Lois hurried over to Clark. "All right, Smallville, what'd she want? Spill it."

Clark gave her an innocent look, blinking at her from behind his large glasses. "She, um, invited me to a dinner Carpenter's throwing tonight."

"How could you accept an invitation from her after everything I just told you?" Lois demanded.

"I might learn something?"

"I'm sure that's the only reason Clark Kent, All American Boy, is going," Lois growled. Clark just blinked at her.

Linda was doing it again. Lois knew it really wasn't any of her business - Clark has simply a co-worker. But she felt protective of the gangly Midwesterner. Despite his experience and travels, he was still a little on the naïve side and she didn't want to see him get hurt by a barracuda like Linda King.

-o-o-o-

Things didn't get better. When Lois got upstairs, Richard and Perry were in conference. Richard waved her into the editor-in-chief's office.

"I'm not about to give that sleaze ball the pleasure…" Perry was saying as she walked in. Richard gave Lois an apologetic look and she knew Perry had cooked up some scheme that she probably wasn't going to like.

Richard cleared his throat. "Perry was just invited to that party Preston Carpenter's throwing at the Metropolis Press Club tonight."

"And?" Lois prompted.

"He's sending us instead," Richard said.

Lois threw her hands up in annoyance. "That's just great. Linda King was downstairs in the coffee shop and personally invited _Clark_ to this shindig."

"Why would King invite Kent to this party?" Perry asked, looking out the window of his office into the bullpen. She followed his gaze to see Clark settling in at his desk.

Lois turned and gave the older man a hard look. "Because he's a man and he was sitting with me in the coffee shop." She knew it sounded self-centered but she couldn't help the facts.

"Does he have a date for tonight?" Perry asked.

"Clark?"

The older man nodded as though he had suspected the answer. He looked over at Richard. "See what Cat Grant is doing tonight. And if Kent isn't taking anyone, send her with him."

-o-o-o-

Lois was still fuming about the whole situation when she and Richard got to the Metropolis Press Club. They were both members, naturally, but Lois rarely went to the club unless she was trying to impress friends from out of town – and she had to admit that wasn't very often – or when she was attending an award ceremony. The Metropolis Press Club did the Kerth Awards. She had five of them at home.

"I'll get us some drinks," Richard offered and disappeared into the crowd of tuxedoed men and fashionably dressed women. A small combo was providing music and a few couples were dancing.

She looked around for Clark amidst the crowd of party goers. With his height he should have been easy enough to find. She finally spotted him weaving his way through the crowd towards her, two glasses of champagne in his hands, mumbling apologies as he went. Cat Grant was nowhere to be seen.

"Wow. Lois, you look... incredible," Clark said when he finally got to her.

She ignored his complement as she continued to scan the room. "I'm here with Richard. Have you seen Linda? I wonder what _she's_ going to be wearing."

"Wild guess here, but there's more to this rivalry than, uh, just who's the better reporter. Right?"

"Don't insult me."

"I insulted you?" Clark said, sounding surprised.

"There's no question who's the better reporter," she explained, making it sound obvious. Just then Linda swept into the room like she owned it. She was dazzling with her blonde hair upswept, wearing a designer original gown that had to have cost more than Lois made in a month and Lois certainly wasn't on the bottom of the pay scale at the Planet.

Lois grabbed Clark's arm and turned him away to keep him from watching Linda. "Don't look at her," she ordered, taking one of the champagne glasses from him.

Too late. To Lois's horror Linda had spotted them and was heading over.

"Lois, what a surprise," Linda said with a smile. "_You're_ Clark's date. What else do you do together?"

"I'm here with my fiancé," Lois corrected. She was gratified to see Linda's eyebrows go up in surprise. The woman glanced at Clark but he shook his head ever so slightly.

"I'm engaged to the Planet's senior assistant editor," Lois added. She made a show of looking around. "What happened, Linda, your date stand you up?"

Linda's eyes narrowed but the smile remained on her face. "Of course not. Follow me. I'll introduce you."

She led them through the crowd, chatting as she walked. "I love your dress, Lois. You're so lucky. I can never wear anything off the rack."

It was all Lois could do to keep from grabbing Linda's hair. Clark's hand on her arm was a gentle reminder for her to stay in control and for that she was grateful. She looked around for Richard, but he was nowhere to be seen.

To Lois's surprise, Linda walked up to Preston Carpenter. Lois took a moment to study the man. He was about Perry's age, but slender and fit, wearing a crushed velvet tuxedo and carrying an ivory headed walking stick which he waved around as he spoke, almost as if he were directing an orchestra. But there was something cold and calculating in his eyes.

"Linda," Carpenter greeted her with a broad smile. He gave her a kiss on the cheek before turning to Lois and Clark. "I am at a loss for words to describe her," he explained.

"I can help there," Lois muttered under her breath as she tried to put a pleasant smile on her face.

"Preston, I'd like you to meet Clark Kent, a reporter with the Daily Planet," Linda said. "And Lois Lane. Clark, Lois, Preston Carpenter."

"The Daily Planet was a fine paper in its day. Fine paper," Carpenter said, waving his cigar. "But things change. That's the lesson of life now, isn't it? You either make it happen, or it happens to you."

Lois had to work to keep the smile on her face and she was certain Clark was having the same problem. The Daily Planet was a staple in Metropolis, an institution. Lois took a breath to begin defending the paper when a gray expressionless man tapped Carpenter on the shoulder.

"The Mayor would like to have a moment with you," the man quietly told Carpenter.

Carpenter smiled at his guests. "Please excuse me." Then he and the man disappeared into the crowd.

Lois turned to Linda. "Well, now we know how you got your job," Lois spat. The accusation didn't seem to bother the other woman in the least. The band began another tune, a slow dance this time.

"You don't mind if Clark and I dance, do you?" Linda asked, giving Lois a saccharine smile as she held out her arm to Clark.

Clark gave Lois a questioning look but Lois simply shrugged, feigning indifference. She wasn't about to let Linda King know much she didn't want her dancing with Clark Kent. Besides, she and Clark were simply co-workers, right? Just friends? Still, the woman wasn't nearly good enough for him.

Richard came up to her, breaking her reverie. "You wandered off," he complained mildly.

"Linda introduced Clark and me to Preston Carpenter," Lois explained, accepting the drink he handed to her.

"So Clark and Cat did make it?"

Lois shrugged. "Clark's here. I haven't seen Cat." She looked around the room. Clark and Linda had disappeared into the crowd.

"Care to dance?" Richard offered. Lois shook her head.

"Let Cat do her society thing," Lois said. "I just want to get out of here."

-o-o-o-

The next morning was busy and conducted without Clark. She hadn't realized how much she'd come to rely on him over the past few months since his return until he wasn't there. Lois and Richard had left Carpenter's party early and Clark hadn't called her to fill her in on what happened after she left. That wasn't like him either.

Lois got to the newsroom early then headed out again. She had a hunch about the Metropolitan fire. Her experience covering fires for City told her something was off.

It was nearly lunchtime before she got back to the Planet. Jimmy was at his desk reading the Star. Lois ignored him as she headed to her own desk and pulled out her notes. Clark's desk was empty and she didn't see him at the coffee machine.

"Where have you been?" Jimmy asked, breaking into her scan for Clark. "The chief's been looking for you."

"Fire department," Lois answered. "They think the hotel's a probable arson. I want you to get down there, get me some aftermath photos, investigators sifting through the rubble, that kind of thing." She eyed the paper on his desk. "Why are you reading that tabloid rag?"

"C.K. got his picture on the society page," Jimmy told her, opening the paper to the photo in question. "He's dancing with Linda King."

Lois looked at the photo. Clark actually looked happy to have Linda in his arms. _First Paul, now Clark_. She felt all the energy go out of her as she fell into her chair.

"I need some good news," she ordered.

Jimmy shrugged. "Then don't read the bulletin board."

"Why?"

"The paper's cutting down on expense accounts," he said.

"They can't do that!"

"Just did. Memo says it's cost cutting due to lower circulation," he explained. He leaned closer and dropped his voice to a whisper. "C.K. thinks paid sick days are the next thing to go."

Lois glanced at Clark's empty desk again. "Where _is_ Clark?"

Jimmy managed to look miserable, like he was being forced to betray his best friend. "I think he had a lunch date with Linda King. Sorry."

She sighed. This day was just getting better and better. Now Clark was off with Linda and the farm boy was just naïve enough to fall for the blonde's feminine wiles.

Lois shoved her notes back into her bag. "If anybody wants me, I'll be at the Fudge Castle. On my own money."

-o-o-o-

The afternoon didn't get any better. An elevator accident in one of the city's older office building cost the lives of three people and Linda King had been right on the spot. Even Superman hadn't been able to get there in time.

Lois could only hope that next time Linda would be a victim instead of a witness.

Clark had been pale when he came back to the newsroom late that afternoon but he gamely wrote up the story for Perry, even though the deadline for the next edition had passed. The Star was already on the newsstands. The Daily Planet's lead story was about the weather and the predicted summer drought.

"How could you let that... that... bottom-feeder scoop you like that?" Lois demanded.

Clark gave her a blank look. "'Bottom-feeder?'"

"And what were you doing having lunch with her anyway?" she continued. Perry had come out of his office, holding a copy of the newest edition of the Star.

"Why are you asking _him_?" Perry growled. "If you want to know something, buy the Star. They know everything!"

"Bet they don't know how much rain we got this year," Jimmy muttered.

Perry glared at him a moment before clearing his throat. "People," Perry yelled at everyone. "I can assure you, if we don't come up with some solid page one stories PDQ, the only writing you'll be doing is your resumes!"

A phone rang and Polly moved to answer it.

"Well? Anybody?" Perry asked loudly. There was no answer from his audience. "Oh, this is just great," he added sarcastically. "I can see the next edition already. Under 'Today's Top News' we'll just print 'We haven't got a clue!' Just what the devil am I supposed to tell the publisher if he calls?"

"Whatever it is, Chief," Polly spoke out. "He's waiting to hear it on line one."

Perry just sighed. "Just a warning, folks. I've seen papers shut down. It's not a pretty picture."

He disappeared into his office. Lois sighed and went to the coffee machine to refill her cup. It was going to be another long day. Clark was sipping his own coffee, staring at the photo on the front page of the Star.

"I know Linda's writing style is absolutely mesmerizing, but please, don't drool," Lois snapped at him.

"How long are you going to keep acting like this?" he asked, folding over the paper.

"Me? You're the one who's more interested in making the Star's society page than the Planet's front page."

"Lois, is that what this is about?" he asked, sounding surprised. "You're jealous because you think I'm infatuated with Linda King? Isn't that a little…?"

"I wouldn't care if you were infatuated with _Steven_ King," Lois growled at him. "What I care about is the quality of reporting at the Planet."

"Then you'll be happy to see this," Clark said, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a Polaroid photo. Lois glanced at it. It was a picture of a piece of cable.

"Okay, I see it. What about it?"

"This is an elevator cable," he explained. "From the accident. Check the end."

"Well, I'm still not happy," she told him. "But I'm closing in on bored." She wasn't about to admit she was curious as to where he was going with this.

"It's not frayed, Lois," he went on patiently. "It's smooth. Like it's been cut."

"Then the accident..."

"Wasn't," he completed for her. "Elevators don't just fall. There are too many safeguards. Somebody wanted that elevator to fail."

Lois could feel the excitement rising. "Clark, do you know what this means? I can scoop Linda!"

"You?" Clark repeated warily.

"Us," Lois corrected herself. "Didn't I say us? I meant us."

"Uh-huh," he said like he didn't quite believe her. "Before _we_ write anything, I want the building inspectors and the forensics team to verify my, I mean, _our_ theory."

"Of course. Absolutely," Lois agreed too quickly. "That's the rational thing to do. Let's get down to the forensics lab."

"Lois, let's sit down and talk this through," Clark suggested. "You seem a little tense."

"Tense? Me? I'm fine," she protested. Clark just looked at her.

"How about we grab something to eat?" she suggested. "I'll go see what Richard's doing."

-o-o-o-

Clark took her and Jason to dinner at the Metropolis Press Club. Richard had a meeting to go to and so begged off joining them for dinner. It wasn't the first time in the past few weeks he had been forced to work late and it was worrying her.

Given the way things were going at the Planet… She didn't want to think about what she would do if the Planet's doors closed. Both she and Richard would be out of work and while they both could probably get back to work quickly enough, it was unlikely they would end up in the same paper, probably not even in the same city. And the last thing she wanted to be was a stay-at-home mom dependant on hubby's pay. And then there was Jason.

This wasn't getting her anywhere. She refocused on the story at hand.

"All right, let's think it through," she began. "Assume the elevator was sabotaged. Who would benefit? You'd kill a random person."

"The building owner?" Clark suggested. "An insurance scam?"

A waiter passed by, presenting each of them a copy of the Star.

"What's this?" Lois asked.

The waiter shrugged. "Every customer receives a free copy."

Lois handed it back but Clark opened his copy, frowning. The waiter moved on to the next table.

"It's bad enough Carpenter cut his news stand price. Now he's giving it away," she groused. Clark didn't look up. "What are you looking at?"

"Carpenter has an editorial demanding stronger building codes in light of the elevator accident, calling for a criminal investigation into the manufacturers," he answered.

"So?"

"So he's a fast writer," Clark said. "It's in the same edition as Linda's article."

"Clark, the man's a walking opinion," Lois told him. "It's not like he has to do a lot of thinking."

"Still..." Clark started thoughtfully.

Lois needed to take a break and rose from her chair. "I'll be right back. Order me a linguine pesto," she instructed. "Jason, you be good for Mister Clark, okay?"

"Yes Mommy," Jason agreed, giving her a grin.

She headed for the ladies' lounge.

-o-o-o-

Lois considered Carpenter's editorial as she dried her hands. The man _was_ a fast writer. And even though the Planet would likely get the scoop on the fact the elevator had been sabotaged, it still didn't help that the Star had gotten the initial disaster story first, even if they had jumped the gun on the causes.

She finished drying her hands and tossed the wadded paper towel into the waste container. As she did so, the clasp on her bracelet broke, again, slipping into the trash. She sighed and reached down to retrieve it. It wasn't an expensive piece of jewelry but it had sentimental value. Her father had given it to her after she won her first Kerth.

The door to the lounge opened and Linda King walked in.

"Looking for your career?" the woman asked.

"I lost my bracelet."

Linda moved to look at her own reflection in the wide mirror. "I've seen how you accessorize, Lois. Believe me, it's not worth the effort."

Finally, Lois felt the bracelet chain and grabbed it. She straightened up and dropped it into her purse. "Is there no getting away from you?" she asked.

"Actually I'm surprised to find _you_ here."

"I'm a member."

Linda gave her a smug smile. "Really? I thought members had to be working for a news organization that was still in business."

"I wouldn't start swaggering yet," Lois warned her. Then she smiled. "Though, on second though, your hips could use the exercise."

Linda simply shrugged. "Speaking of bodies, your friend has a great one. Talk about buns of steel."

"How would you know?" Lois demanded.

"You don't need Superman's x-ray vision to figure that out," Linda said with a chuckle.

"I'm warning you, Linda. Stay away from him." Lois ignored the little voice that said she was just playing into Linda's hands.

"Aren't we a little possessive? He looks like a big boy to me. The kid's cute too. Previous marriage?"

"The 'kid's' name is Jason and he's mine," Lois told her.

"Lois Lane's a mommy?" Linda laughed. "How the hell did that happen?"

"How it happened is none of your business. Just stay away from Clark. He's good-hearted... and a little naive. I don't want to see him get hurt. I know you only want to use him to get back at me," Lois told her.

"Lois, for me to want to 'get back' at you, you'd have to have done something that mattered to me," Linda stated. "Which you haven't." With that, Linda sauntered out of the lounge.

Lois followed her, only to find the woman was heading toward where Clark sat waiting with Jason.

"Clark, I need to ask you a favor," Linda began.

"He's working," Lois interrupted "_We're_ working."

"You look like you're about to have dinner," Linda commented.

"You had lunch with the man. Aren't you full yet?" Lois asked as she sat down across from Clark.

Linda ignored her. "I'd like you to walk me to the subway. It'd really help me out."

"By all means, Clark. Help her out," Lois said, not bothering to keep the disdain out of her voice. "Then lock the door behind her."

"Such wit, Lois. I hope it'll help pass the hours at the unemployment office." There was something very unpleasant in Linda's voice.

"Do you two mind if I speak?" Clark asked.

"Tell her 'no,' and let's eat," Lois ordered.

Lois watched Clark hesitate. "She probably doesn't know her way around," Clark said finally.

"She knows her way around enough to beat us twice since she got here," Lois reminded him.

"Trust me," he told Lois quietly as he got up from the table. "There's a subway a couple of blocks from here," he told Linda then turned back to Lois. "I'll be right back."

Lois glowered at them as Linda snaked her arm through Clark's and led him away. Linda looked back over her shoulder and grinned at Lois.

"I don't like her," Jason commented quietly.

"Neither do I," Lois admitted to her son.

-o-o-o-

Lois didn't wait for Clark to return. She couldn't believe he was so naive as to fall for a bleached blonde in a tight dress. But he had left her waiting for him and that was something she simply wouldn't stand for. It was bad enough that Richard had missed dinner. It was intolerable that Clark should.

She was scrubbing the grout on her kitchen counter when there was a knock at the front door to the house. She brushed her hair out of her face as she walked into the living room.

"Who is it?"

"Lois, it's me," Clark announced from outside. "I'm sorry."

She unlocked the door for him but didn't bother to open it as she walked away.

"I was only gone a few minutes," Clark said. "You didn't have to leave."

"I'm a busy person. I have things to do. I needed to get Jason home. I have to…"

"Scrub your grout?" Clark asked, nodding to the toothbrush in her hand. "You're really letting this woman get to you."

She whirled around, waving the toothbrush in her hand at him. "Get to me?" she spat. She stopped and considered his observation. She _had_ been letting Linda get to her. "This does not leave this room, understand?"

Clark nodded.

"Okay. Linda and I go way back," Lois said. "We went to high school and college together. We were even in journalism together. Anyway, there was this guy. He was a senior and editor of the paper, and I had a very big crush on him. Well to make a long story short, Linda stole him right out from under my nose. And to add insult to injury, she stole the paper I wrote for the class he was T-A-ing in. Needless to say, that was the end of our friendship. So now you know everything. Happy?"

"So, uh, she stole a paper and she stole a guy and now she's trying to do it again, huh?" Clark summarized for her.

"Don't flatter yourself," she warned him.

"Hey, don't take this out on me," Clark told her. "Besides, you're engaged to Richard, remember? You have no claim on me."

"And you have no pride. You're behaving like her servant. You say 'yes' to her party, 'yes' to lunch, 'yes' to walking her home."

"So it's okay for me to be your servant, but nobody else's?" Clark asked. "Lois, you're engaged to be married to Richard."

"But you're my partner."

"When it suits you," Clark added.

"And what you do reflects on me," she went on ignoring his interruption. "I don't want the world to know my partner's a doormat for women."

"That's not true, Lois, and you know it," he said. He sounded hurt by her accusation.

"You want truth? You're a doormat with no taste," she yelled.

"I'm out of here!" Clark yelled back.

"Perfect. Fine. I'm sure she's waiting for you."

"And you know what? I'd love to hear her side of this," Clark told her. "And I could tell her a few things about how impossible you are to work with!"

She opened the front door. "Really? Then why don't you go to work with her, too?"

"Maybe I will."

She pushed him out the door. "You two deserve each other!" she screamed, slamming the door behind him. She leaned against the closed door, listening. After a moment she heard his footsteps heading away from the door. Then, with a sob, she slid down the door to sit, fighting to keep from bursting into tears.

Clark was right. She had a fiancé. She had no claim on her co-worker. So why did it feel so wrong for him to be seeing Linda King?

* * *

**A/N**: yes, an AU of **L&CtNAoS** 'the Rival' written by Tony Blake & Paul Jackson


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh fuck," Lois murmured.

Richard raised an eyebrow at her. Lois had been trying hard not to use bad language around Jason. For the most part she was successful, but occasionally one would slip out, especially if she was upset. He waited for her to continue.

"I drove him to her," she said finally. "It's my fault he's over at the Star."

"Lois, Clark's a big boy," Richard said. "He's perfectly capable of making his own decisions."

"Richard, you didn't see him at the Press Club drooling over her. It was like he was a teenager and she was the prom queen who finally deigned to notice the class nerd."

"That's not exactly a flattering description of Clark, you know," Richard managed to say. He wanted to laugh but didn't dare. Clark was quiet, even shy, and his size contributed to the impression he was clumsy – an Irish Wolfhound looked clumsy inside a small house but when out in a field running through its paces, it was anything but. Plus Richard suspected that Clark carefully cultivated the clumsy image to make himself seem less threatening. That and the excessively polite Midwest boy demeanor added up to everyone underestimating him – especially Lois.

"Linda was there crooking her finger at him and it was like I was back in school again," Lois told him. "Then he came over here to talk about it and I… I lost it, especially after he actually started arguing with me about… things."

Richard's eyes widened in surprise. "Clark actually argued with you?" he said in mock astonishment. "And you let him live?"

"Don't sound so surprised," Lois warned. "Clark is perfectly capable of defending himself. It's just that most of the time he doesn't bother." She gave a little chuckle. "I'm a little surprised Perry never filled you in on the 'Great Godzilla Chase'."

Richard shook his head. Now wasn't the time to tell her he had heard bits and pieces of the story over the years he'd been working as assistant editor. Enough that he probably did know most of the story, although he knew it wasn't something _anyone_ talked about where Lois could hear them.

"About a week after Superman appeared in the city," Lois began, "everybody was looking for clues, hints, anything, about him. Where he lived, where he came from. We both know you're only as good as your next story and Clark got the second exclusive interview with him. Clark also had a couple other things going and I had nothin' for Perry. Everything I'd been working on had fallen through. I panicked and 'borrowed' one of Clark's stories. _Not_ one of my prouder moments."

Richard listened, waiting for her to continue.

"He didn't say anything to me or Perry," she went on. "It was like he didn't even notice. Then I caught wind that he knew where Superman's spaceship was. I followed the clues and ended up at the main Metropolis Water Reclamation Facility. Have you any idea how easy it is to get lost in there, or how many mosquitoes and flying bugs there are in there?"

Richard had the sense to shake his head.

"What I found at 'X marks the spot' was a Godzilla doll with a Superman symbol painted on it and a note from Clark saying 'next time, ask.' I know Jimmy got at least one shot of me walking into the bullpen with that damned doll, looking like I'd spent a week in a swamp."

"_Clark Kent_ sent you on the…? That's a part of the story I hadn't heard. I never took him for a practical joker."

Lois shook her head. "That's just it. He isn't. As far as I know, he's never done anything like that to anybody else and if I hadn't been so intent getting there first, using information I took from him… He also never told anybody what happened. Perry figured it out himself. He recognized the story I handed in as one Clark had been working on."

"Needless to say, you never did anything like that to him again?" Richard said. What she had related showed a different side of Kent. One few people suspected.

She shrugged. "He got his point across."

"So, why do you think he won't be able to handle anything Linda King can throw at him?" Richard asked.

Lois folded her arms across her chest as if she was cold. It was a few moments before she spoke. "Richard, you don't understand Clark. I know he's covered wars, assassinations, the City beat. But he really is a Boy Scout at heart. That's how he sees the world. He doesn't understand evil. She'll eat him alive."

"That's pretty harsh," Richard commented.

"You don't know Linda. The only reason she latched onto Clark is she saw us together, and she thinks…" Her voice trailed off.

"She thinks what, Lois?" he prompted.

"She thinks Jason is Clark's son."

"And why would she think that?" Richard asked. He suspected the answer. He knew Lois had been pregnant when they met. She hadn't tried to hide the fact from him, although she never said a word to him, or anyone else, about who Jason's natural father was.

"Because the entire bullpen thinks he is," Lois answered. "Because the timing is right and Jason looks just like him. What more does there need to be?"

"_Is_ he Jason's father?"

She shook her head. "It might be easier for everybody if he was."

Richard had nothing to say to that.

-o-o-o-

The next day was worse. It was becoming apparent that the 'flu' that had stricken the bullpen over that past week was spreading. The remaining staff was doing the best they could, but the Daily Planet was hemorrhaging its life away.

Even Jimmy knew it. The Star was killing them by inches.

Lois walked into Perry's office. More aggravation for an already dismal morning.

"More people have bailed?" she asked.

He shrugged but didn't look up from what he was reading. "I can't blame them," he said after a moment.

"What about loyalty? What about going down with the ship?" she asked.

"That's for captains. That's why I'm still here."

"How can you be so calm?"

"What's my choice?" he asked, finally looking up at her standing across from him.

"Well, since I've worked here, I've seen you scream, throw things, you even put your fist through the conference room wall once," she reminded him.

He suppressed the urge to rub the knuckles of his right hand. The bones he'd cracked that day still ached when the weather got cold and damp – like it was today.

"All we can do is keep doing what we're supposed to be doing," he told her. He picked up the assignment sheet and glanced at it. "Now according to this, what you're supposed to be doing is covering the Orani Jewels that the Ambassador of Omir's presenting to Secretary Wallace as a lovely parting gift."

"That's the best we've got?" Lois asked.

He had to agree with her. It wasn't much.

"No. The best we've got is the editor of the Daily Planet hanging from the top of the Global Trade building in a gorilla suit. But my costume hasn't arrived yet. I'll page you when it does," he told her. He was only half joking. "Now, go on. It'll be okay. Trust me."

"That's what Clark said," she replied. Perry watched after her as she walked out of his office. Richard came out of his own office to talk to her. Her shoulders were hunched and whatever Richard was saying wasn't helping. After a brief conversation, Lois grabbed her coat, notepad, and purse and left the bullpen.

-o-o-o-

The Omir Consulate was in an ugly stone building in Midtown. Clark dutifully trailed Linda King into the building. A guard directed them to a large open room. Along the far wall was a dais with a microphone, rows of folding chairs and a table or case covered with a heavy cloth.

"Um, you're sure you don't mind me suggesting to Carpenter that he team us up?" Clark asked his companion.

Linda gave him a sensuous smile. "I'm just mad I didn't suggest it first."

They walked along the back wall of the room. A large bronze statue of an armored horseman dominated that part of the room.

Linda eyed it skeptically. "I'm glad that's not in my living room."

Clark peered at it. "Actually, it's a 14th century Dibai. Very…"

He was interrupted by Linda's cell phone ringing. She flipped it open. "King... Right, we're here. Main room... Bye."

"Carpenter," she explained as she closed her phone and dropped it back into her pocket.

"He really keeps close tabs on you, doesn't he?" Clark asked.

An odd look crossed her face. She looked around as if to make sure no one was listening. "Clark, if I tell you something, you have to keep this to yourself."

"Oh, sure. Absolutely," he agreed. He'd been hoping she would feel comfortable enough with him to open up. He hadn't expected it to be so soon.

"He's been hitting on me," she told him.

"Oh." He tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice. It hadn't been the revelation he'd been hoping to hear.

"Don't worry. I only have eyes for you," she assured him. He wasn't reassured.

On the opposite side of the room the double doors opened and Secretary Wallace, one of his aides and the Omiri ambassador walked in, followed by guards and other members of the press. Lois was there. Clark tried to catch her eye but she looked the other way.

Linda seemed to detect his attempt to get Lois's attention. "Forget it, Clark. Lois has never been a good loser. Just move on."

Secretary Wallace stepped up to the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Ambassador and myself will be happy to answer a few questions before the unveiling."

Clark raised his hand. "Mister Secretary, Clark Kent, Metropolis Star. What do you think…?"

Lois cut him off. "Mister Secretary, Lois Lane, Daily Planet. Is it true…?"

Linda glared at the dark-haired woman. "Excuse me! But I believe Mister Kent was asking a question."

"Mister Kent can speak for himself," Lois retorted.

"Maybe. Except he's gotten so used to you doing it for him," Linda spat.

On the dais, Wallace simply looked bewildered. Clark closed his eyes in frustration. Lois had turned to address Linda directly.

"Hypocrite," Lois shouted.

"Me? You sure can dish it out but you can't take it," Linda shot back.

"Oh, get off your high horse!"

"And get down in the gutter with you?"

Under the yelling, Clark heard another sound – one that certainly didn't belong at a news conference – the mechanical clicks of ammunition being loaded into guns. He opened his eyes and examined the adjacent rooms, backing away from Linda as if to distance himself from the two women's argument.

Up front, Wallace was shouting for order. Lois and Linda didn't seem to hear him.

"Ladies, please! Please! No questions. That's it…" Wallace finally yelled. That got Lois and Linda's attention. They both stopped yelling but they still glared at one another.

Clark ignored them as he spotted three masked and armed men in a storage room that opened onto the room they were in.

"Let's get to the real reason we're here, the ceremonial exchange from the Kingdom of Omir to the United States. Ladies and gentlemen, the gift from the Ambassador of Omir –

the Orani Jewels," Wallace was saying.

A quick blast of super-breath tipped over the statue so that it blocked the storage room door. The crowd turned at the crash. Clark took advantage of the confusion to approach one of the uniformed guards.

"There are three armed men behind that door," Clark told him. "You might want to, um, call the police," he suggested quietly.

"And how…?" the guard asked. There was the sound of pounding from inside the storage room. The guard pulled out his cell phone.

Satisfied, Clark looked around to locate Linda. She was glowering Lois. Lois, on the other hand, was watching _him_, one eyebrow arched in suspicion.

-o-o-o-

"Richard, something is going on and I'm going to get to the bottom of it," Lois insisted as she steered her car to Clark Kent's apartment that evening. She hadn't been able to catch up with Clark after the debacle at the news conference and writing up the story on the mysteriously foiled attack at the consulate had taken up her afternoon.

"Lois, Clark doesn't work for the Planet any more," Richard reminded her. She wasn't buying it. She had seen Clark talking to the guard only minutes before the police showed up to take custody of the three armed men who had been hiding in the storage room. And then there was the matter of the bronze statue that had mysteriously fallen to block the door. Something had knocked it over and it wasn't an earthquake or the building settling – a quick call to Met U's geology department had confirmed that for her.

That left only one possibility. Superman had knocked over the statue and hadn't wanted his presence known. But he had let Clark know what was going on.

She found a parking space near Clark's building and pulled in.

"Jason and I can wait here," Richard offered, indicating the coffee shop next to the natural food grocery that filled the ground floor of Clark's building.

Lois nodded. "This shouldn't take too long," she promised.

Clark's apartment was on the top floor of the converted warehouse in a neighborhood in the midst of gentrification. Trendy coffee shops and ethnic restaurants rubbed shoulders with pawn shops and triple-X theaters. Hookers stood on the corner, heckling preppie shoppers looking for a deal, or simply going home to their lofts.

Lois knocked hard on Clark's door. After a moment, the door opened. Clark was standing there in worn jeans, Reeboks, and a flannel shirt, blinking owl-like at her.

She breezed past him. "All right, Clark. You can run, but you can't hide. What's going on?"

Clark regarded her warily. "What do you mean, 'What's going on?'"

"Don't give me the innocent act," she warned.

"Me?" He gave her another wide-eyed, innocent look. She didn't buy it, anymore than she bought the same look when Jason tried it.

"So, that's how you're going to play this, huh?" she asked, looking around the main room of his apartment. It was sparsely furnished – a low table on an oriental rug, an Ekornes chair and ottoman in burgundy, and a low cabinet with a small stereo system. The walls were covered with tall bookshelves and native art. On one end was a loft with a sleep area, accessed by a steep flight of steps. She didn't see a television.

"Oh, I get it. She's here, isn't she? You can't talk because she's here." She raised her voice. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

There was no place to hide in the main area. Lois threw open the louvered door to the kitchen – nothing. She ran up the steps to the loft, Clark on her heels.

"Lois, what are you doing?" Clark was asking.

"Where is she?" Lois demanded.

"Where is who?"

She didn't answer his question, opening the wardrobe and shoving aside the neatly hung suits, then slamming open the door to the bathroom. She was startled to find a familiar figure hiding in Clark's bathroom.

"Perry?"

The older man stepped out of the bathroom, watching her beneath brindled eyebrows. She looked between the two men, trying to make sense of what she'd found.

"Either this is a lot sicker than I thought, or it's _not_ what I thought. Which is it?" she demanded.

She caught the guilty look that passed between them. "Well?" she prompted.

"Clark's been working undercover at the Star," Perry said quietly.

It was like a weight had been lifted. "Of course!" She looked to Clark. "You couldn't possibly be ready to throw away everything you've worked for… for Linda King."

"You're right about that," Clark admitted. He nodded to the stairs. "It's more comfortable downstairs."

Lois followed Clark and Perry back to the main floor.

"So talk," she demanded once Perry was settled into the one chair. Clark was sitting on the corner of the table.

"Those accidents aren't accidents," Clark said. "The arson fire that Linda _happened_ to be at. The elevator that failed catastrophically during lunch. There was even supposed to be a heist of the Orani jewels."

Lois nodded. She knew all that. She'd been pestering the fire marshal's office all week for details on the Metropolitan arson fire. And _she_ was the one who called the Orani consulate story into the Planet.

"We thought they might be staging crimes just to scoop us," Perry explained. "So we staged Kent's defection."

"You could have told me!" Lois protested.

"My idea," Perry explained. "You seem to be personally involved here. I didn't want to risk it."

"You mean I've been going through all this hell for nothing?" Lois demanded.

"What do you mean?" Clark asked. He seemed bewildered. Perry was just watching her, eyes narrowed.

"Forget it," Lois said. The last thing she wanted was for Perry to suspect her reaction to Clark's 'defection' was anything but professional concern, especially since she couldn't explain her reaction to herself. "So, Linda is in this up to her surgically sculpted chin?"

"I don't think so," Clark said. "I mean, I thought that was it, that's why I wanted to get partnered with her. But I think she's out of the loop, at least on this."

"What do you mean?" Perry asked. He leaned forward in the chair, elbows on knees.

"She was as surprised as anyone when the elevator failed. And she certainly wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary at the consulate. But… Linda King worked as a writer and researcher for 'Top Copy' before being wooed by Carpenter to come to the Star," Clark said. "My FBI contacts tell me she's a 'person of interest' in a series of unsolved murders all over the country."

"A serial killer?" Perry asked.

"A hired assassin," Clark told them. "Key witnesses against Intergang and other organized crime syndicates have been killed or have vanished in cities where she was doing work for the show. And one of the few surviving witnesses said the assassin was a tall woman. Linda fits that description, but so do a few other people there, including Diana Stride."

Lois was familiar with 'Top Copy' and Diana Stride. Stride was the stunning star of the television version of 'The Whisper' tabloid, hunting down celebrities from all walks and exposing their secrets on air. Lois occasionally watched the show for laughs, but the lack of journalistic integrity annoyed her. It didn't surprise her to find out that Linda had worked for Stride.

"What do we do now?" Lois asked.

"Well, now that you know, the two of you might as well start working this together," Perry told them. "That is, if you think you still can."

"Chief, I'm fine," Lois assured him. "It's Clark who turns to mush whenever he's around her."

"Me?" Clark protested. "You're the one who fell into the black hole the minute you heard she was in town."

"Don't exaggerate," Lois warned. She pitched her voice high, mimicking Linda. "'Clark, can you walk me to the subway?'"

"I was just being polite," Clark reminded her. "Besides, why are you mad at me? We were just partners. I could understand it if it was Richard who…"

"Richard has better taste than to fall for a bleached blonde floozy," Lois retorted. "You'd fly her to the moon if you could."

"Are you two sure you're going to be okay together?" Perry asked. His eyebrows were pulled together in concern.

"I promise not to hurt him, okay?" Lois said. Perry seemed to relax and she caught his amused grin as he headed for the door. "Uh, Perry, Richard and Jason are down in the coffee shop," Lois added. "Would you tell them I'll take a cab home."

Perry nodded, but his grin seemed to slip just a little and the worry was back.

"This shouldn't take too long," she assured him.

Perry nodded again and left her alone with Clark, but she knew he had some reservations about the situation. The gossips would have a field day if they knew she was alone with Clark and had sent Richard and Jason home.

"Want some coffee?" Clark asked.

"If it's not too much trouble."

"No trouble," he assured her, disappearing into the kitchen.

She took the opportunity to check out his private library. Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Stewart, Clancy, Greeley, Aristotle, Dante, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, both in their original languages and translations. History, literature, science, politics, religion. There was even a copy of Perry White's **Reports from the Ground**.

Interspersed with the books was small artwork from various places, no doubt picked up during his travels, and a few family photographs. She picked up one in a silver frame – a weather beaten couple with a young dark-haired boy. The boy bore an uncanny resemblance to Jason.

"I was about Jason's age when that was taken," Clark said from just behind her. She hadn't heard him come back into the room.

"They look like they were nice people," she said, setting the photo back in its place.

"They were," Clark said. He handed her a cup and she accepted it. She took a sip of the hot brew and was pleased to find that Clark had prepared it exactly the way she liked it. Even Richard didn't have that knack, despite living with her for four years. She suspected the coffee was fully caffeinated as well. Richard had tried to wean her from the stimulant – he felt it made her too jumpy and unable to sleep. She suspected Clark actually preferred her a little on edge.

She spotted another framed photo. One of her and Clark together. She was in a pale pink suit with a wide-brimmed hat. He was in a tan suit with a pink boutonniere. They were both grinning sheepishly at the camera. She stared at it a long moment, trying to remember when it had been taken. The background indicated they were in the newsroom.

Lois had a vague memory of it. She'd been arguing with Clark over something inconsequential - at least she thought it was inconsequential - and Perry had called them into his office.

"Listen. If you two want to bicker, that's great, because I got just the assignment for you," Perry had interrupted them. "You're going to pose as a honeymoon couple in Niagara Falls to get an expose of the newlywed racket. Some of the hotels up there are bilking these kids for every cent they can get. Real human interest stuff. Your Aunt Edna'll cry her eyes out."

Clark had been horrified. "Newlyweds? Us?"

"That's a great idea, Chief," Lois had told him. She had been ecstatic over the prospect but now she couldn't remember why.

Jimmy had taken a photo just before they left for the Honeymoon Haven wearing the wedding rings that Perry had provided them.

"What happened that weekend, Clark?" Lois asked. She looked up at him, half expecting to see a mystified expression indicating nothing had happened, that he had no idea what she was asking about. Instead, he refused to meet her eyes.

"I think we need to get working if you're going to get home at a reasonable time," Clark said, not answering her question.

She wasn't going to be put off. "You kept a copy of this picture," she pointed out. "We went to Niagara Falls together on assignment. Only I don't actually remember _going_ to Niagara Falls with you or anyone else. And you took off on your trip to wherever only a few weeks later. What happened?"

"Lois, I don't think that now is the time to be discussing this," Clark told her. There was an oddly familiar, un-Clark-like, sternness in his tone.

"Clark, what happened?" she demanded.

He sighed, looking off into the distance. "Superman happened."


	4. Chapter 4

Richard was still awake when he heard the front door open and close followed by quiet footsteps on the stairs. The clock on the bed stand showed the time as 2:42 AM.

The door to the master bedroom opened and closed and he saw Lois getting undressed by the light of the outside street lamp through the broad windows.

"Perry said you wouldn't be very long," Richard said, keeping his voice low. "Have you any idea what time it is?"

Lois jumped at the sound of his voice. "I… I didn't think you'd still be awake."

"It's nearly three in the morning. Where have you been?"

He couldn't see her expression in the shadows but he heard her sigh. "Clark and I started talking about old times, about his trip. That's all."

"That's all?" Richard demanded. Lois hadn't pulled an all-nighter since he'd known her although Jimmy and some of the old-timers in the newsroom had told him that Lane and Kent had frequently spent nights together on stake-outs before he disappeared on his trip.

"It took longer than I expected to go through what he had, and then we started talking and I invited him to the Ace O'Clubs for a nightcap. At least we didn't close the place down."

"Thank God for small favors," Richard muttered. He couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

"Richard, I'm really not up for this," Lois warned. "I've got a busy day tomorrow… today. Clark thinks he can convince Linda King to help us take down Preston Carpenter."

"Good for Clark," Richard told her. This time he didn't bother to even try to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "But why did he need to talk to you about it till past two in the morning?"

"Richard, I told you. We started talking about things and we just lost track of time. I mean, Clark's been back for two months and I've barely talked to him outside of work."

Richard didn't bother to comment. Lois slipped on her nightgown and climbed into bed beside him. She rolled onto her side, away from him. He knew she wasn't going to explain further. He also knew she wasn't being entirely truthful. He just wasn't sure if she was lying to him, or to herself.

Richard had known when he first met Lois Lane that she had been Superman's primary press contact and probably more. When he was hired by his Uncle Perry for the position of assistant editor, he took it upon himself to read much of what she had written for the paper and had been surprised to find shared bylines with someone named Clark Kent. But Kent was no longer at the Planet and Lois refused to talk about him.

The natural assumption had been that the relationship between Lois and Kent had moved past platonic in a spectacularly disastrous way. That's what the newsroom gossips agreed had happened when Lane and Kent were assigned to impersonate newlyweds for an exposé at Niagara Falls. Kent had walked away from his job only a few weeks after their return. But Richard had doubts about the truth of what everyone claimed had happened and Lois refused to say one way or another.

But it was Superman's absence she had grieved about. Finally she chose to get on with her life. She settled into relatively contented domesticity with Richard White and her son. Everyone said it was a perfect match and for a while Richard had even agreed with them. Lois wrote her famous essay, won her coveted Pulitzer.

Then Superman returned and so did Clark Kent.

"Were you in love with him?" Richard had asked her not long after the superhero's spectacular return the Earth.

"He's Superman," she had answered the question. "Everybody was in love with him."

"But were you?" he had insisted.

There had been a pause and finally she answered: "No."

Now Richard wondered if he had asked the right question that night, and if he had, if she would have answered him honestly.

-o-o-o-

Four hours of sleep simply wasn't enough, Lois groused to herself as she waited for Linda and Clark to show up for breakfast at the Press Club. The revelation that Perry had asked Clark to 'defect' to the Star had only surprised her a little and she was still trying to get a handle on why she had needed to confront Clark at his apartment or why she had been so incensed by the idea that Clark might have an interest in Linda King beyond the professional.

Lois was engaged to Richard White, even though she hadn't been willing to set a date to get married to him. Clark was her sometime writing partner, nothing more. Except there was a hole in her memory of the time she went to Niagara Falls with him. A hole that Clark refused to fill in for her.

"What happened at Niagara Falls?" she had asked him.

"Superman happened."

When pestering him for answers failed, she went so far as to try to get him drunk. But he had stopped at two beers and had stubbornly refused more. She tried different approaches – telling him of meeting Richard, of Jason's birth, the comings and goings at the Planet while he was gone. He listened attentively then told her a little about the places he'd seen. But his recitation was oddly flat, rehearsed, like he was relating a travelogue rather than what he had experienced.

She was on her second cup of coffee and the waiter was giving her odd looks when Clark and Linda finally walked in and sat down at her table.

"When you invited me to breakfast, I assumed we'd be alone," Linda complained.

"We have some information to share with you," Clark said, opening his briefcase.

Lois noted that Linda's eyebrow went up at Clark's use of the word 'we'.

Clark pulled out three file folders and pushed them toward Linda. Lois knew what they were. The preliminary forensic reports on the Metropolitan fire, the crane collapse in Midtown and the fatal elevator failure.

Linda glanced through the files. "I knew the hotel fire was an arson," Linda told them. "That woman has lucky Superman happened to be passing by. But these other two… The authorities are positive they weren't accidents?"

"Absolutely," Clark assured her. "But, and this doesn't go beyond this table, in each of these incidents, a remote controlled detonator was used. The police believe, and so do we, that the perpetrators were waiting on an outside signal to proceed. They were waiting for _you_ to be there."

Linda stared across the table at Lois and Clark, her face a mask of shock and disbelief. "That can't be true. It can't be."

"Think about it," Clark said. "Carpenter always calls to verify your location, right? He's the publisher. He doesn't need to do that."

"Unless he needs to make sure his man, or woman, is in place before he pulls the trigger on whatever he's got planned," Lois added.

"Like the elevator. You just happened to be there having lunch. Just like you happened to be at the fire and you _happened_ to be in Midtown when the crane collapsed."

"Just like Carpenter _happens_ to have a full page editorial ready to run in the same edition," Lois added. "Nobody writes that fast."

Linda exhaled slowly as if to force herself to relax. "I feel so... so..."

"Abused? Duped? Used?" Lois suggested.

"What are you, a _thesaurus_?" Linda asked, staring at the other woman.

Clark sighed. "Why don't you two put this on hold? We have a lot of work to do."

"We?" Lois asked sweetly. "'We' is an inclusive term Clark, one used to indicate all persons present. That would be a clear misuse."

"What are you, a _dictionary_?

"Bottom line," Clark interrupted. "It's a Planet story."

"Absolutely!" Lois agreed with a triumphant grin.

"Which we can't possibly prove or print without Linda's help," Clark said. His reminder took some of the wind out of Lois's sails.

"Exactly!" Linda crowed. Then her expression turned to concern. "What am I supposed to do? Walk up and say, 'Hi, boss, where are you staging your next disaster?'"

"You need to get Carpenter out of his office long enough for us to get into his computer," Clark told her.

Linda gave him a baffled look. "How?"

"You could use your 'other talents.'" Lois suggested overly brightly. "It wouldn't be the first time."

Clark looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "You said he'd been hitting on you. Maybe you could... hit back?"

Linda nodded. Lois found herself staring at her partner as she realized he hadn't stammered once in their conversation, and the Clark she knew from before his trip would _never_ have suggested a woman use her natural 'attributes' to get a story. It was a side to him she had never seen.

-o-o-o-

It was cheating, and Lois would be furious if she ever found out, but Clark used his special abilities to follow Linda's progress to Carpenter's penthouse office.

He'd been a little surprised at Linda's reaction to their evidence. Her heart rate had hiked up when presented with the proof that her three big stories had been set-up, and that her boss was the most likely suspect. But Clark had sensed she was more surprised that Carpenter was their chief suspect, than that the Star's publisher was willing to kill to create a story. He wondered how much of what Lois had said about her was true.

He watched as Linda entered Carpenter's office. The publisher was putting on his coat, apparently ready to leave. He seemed pre-occupied.

"I'm afraid I've only got a few minutes. What can I do for you?" Carpenter said.

"Well, I think the question is: What can I do for you?" Linda said sweetly. "I just read the latest sales projections. Soon the Metropolis Star will be the most widely read paper in the country. It's all because of you. Congratulations."

"May she be a beacon for the nation," Carpenter quoted, waving his cigar airily.

"I was hoping you might like to join me for lunch. As my guest. To celebrate."

"That's very tempting," Carpenter said. "But as I said, I'm somewhat pressed for time today."

Linda sat on the desk, revealing long legs. She did it so naturally that Clark found himself wondering how many other times the woman had done the same thing. Carpenter was staring at her legs.

"Preston, even a busy publisher has to eat," Linda said, lowering her voice seductively.

"After the other night, I wasn't sure you shared my interest in moving our relationship beyond just business."

"Now who would have guessed a charming man like you could have any insecurities?" Linda asked. She moved closer to him, playing with his tie. "So, can we make it happen?"

"Maybe we should just eat here," Carpenter suggested.

"Oh, no. We should go out," Linda replied. "Someplace nice. Drinks, champagne. Then, well, who knows? So, where should we go?"

"I know just the place," Carpenter said. Clark saw the leer on the man's face.

"Earth to Clark," Lois whispered. She was waiting with him on fire stairs for Carpenter and Linda to leave. Clark put his hand up to silence her as the door to the office opened. Linda and Carpenter stepped out. Linda slipped her arm through his as he closed the door behind them.

"You're a very interesting woman, Linda," Carpenter said as they headed for the elevator.

"And the day is still young..." Linda said.

They disappeared into the elevator. Clark hurried across the hall to the door, Lois on his heels. The door had been left unlocked, allowing them to slip inside. Lois spotted the computer on the desk and hurried over to it while Clark locked the door.

"This shouldn't take long," Lois murmured. She was scanning Carpenter's document directory when the doorknob on the office door jiggled. Clark saw a large shadow looming through the frosted glass of the door. Special vision revealed the figure trying the door was Stark, Carpenter's personal assistant.

Clark's research had revealed that Stark was an ex-Special Ops man, discharged from the military for undisclosed reasons that were probably related to his right wing and racially bigoted tendencies. After several years as a mercenary, Stark ended up as Carpenter's bodyguard then personal aide. The man was a trained killer and he was suspected of being the actual doer in the incidents Linda had reported on. Unfortunately, suspicion didn't equal proof.

Keys jingled and the door knob turned.

"Quick, under here," Clark ordered Lois, pushing her under Carpenter's desk. He had no doubts that Stark would kill if he found them in there.

"What about you?" Lois demanded. There was only room for one of them under the desk, not that Clark would have fit in any case.

"Just stay there!"

Clark looked around the room and realized there was nowhere for someone his size to hide. Invisibility was not one of his abilities. But there was a large window that opened onto a tiny balcony.

Clark heard the door open. Footsteps crossed the carpet, stopped, turned and walked out. The door closed and the lock clicked.

He has inside the room before Lois could scramble out from under the desk.

"That was close," Lois breathed. "Where did you hide?"

Clark simply shrugged. Lois gave him a doubtful look but he wasn't about to explain that he had hidden outside the window, thirty stories up. Lois just shook her head as she sat back down at Carpenter's desk.

"Let's not waste any time in case he comes back," Clark suggested.

Lois grabbed the computer mouse. After a new moments: "We're in... I'm betting this is his subdirectory... Yeah."

Clark peered over her shoulder at the monitor. "What's that file? 'Musings?'"

She opened the document. "Looks like a personal diary," Lois said as she scrolled down the file. But it wasn't a diary or if it was it was evidence of an extremely disturbed mind and a possible sexual predator. "This man is very sick. In an X-rated kind of way."

"Let's hope Linda doesn't have to call his bluff," Clark told her.

"Don't worry," Lois said grimly. "They're probably perfect for each other."

"We need proof, not scandal," Clark reminded her. "Try another file. That one." He pointed at subdirectory labeled 'camelot'. Lois attempted to open it but a password request came on the screen.

"This must be it. But we need a password to get into it."

"Try Kane. K-A-N-E," Clark suggested. "Linda says he's got a Citizen Kane fixation."

"No kidding," Lois muttered as she typed it in. "Nope. Let's see… How about... Rosebud?"

Clark said it at the same time as she did.

"Great minds think alike," Lois said with a grin. "We're in."

Clark pointed at the document on the screen. "There's the editorial that went with the hotel fire."

Lois opened another document. "There's the one on building inspections that ran with the elevator accident." She opened a more recent one and skimmed it. "Wait a minute. 'An eye for an eye is the only course this country can take after today's brutal assassination of Secretary Wallace at his hotel by Omir extremists...'" she read aloud. "But, Wallace isn't dead."

"Yet."

"Carpenter's willing to kill a member of the cabinet to sell a few papers?" Lois asked.

Clark nodded. "And to drag us into another war. And he'd also be willing to kill Linda if he knew she was on to him. Let's go."

"Just a minute," she said, still peering at the screen. "'It is regrettable the Superman was unable to prevent the death of a great statesman…' How would he know that?"

Clark stopped to consider the possibilities. None of them boded well for him. Then he heard the sound of Stark entering the elevator.

"We can worry about that later," he told her. "Come on."

Lois nodded. She pulled a flash drive from her pocket and plugged it in. The documents didn't take long to copy but Clark still glared at her impatiently. He could hear Stark coming up in the elevator but there was no way he could explain to Lois how he knew they were running out of time.

"I'm coming already!" Lois muttered as she grabbed the flash drive and turned off the computer.

They were in the stairwell and halfway to the next floor down when Stark got out of the elevator.

-o-o-o-

"Uncle Perry, has Lois checked in yet?" Richard asked.

Perry looked up to see Richard standing in his office doorway. The man looked like he hadn't slept at all the night before.

"She called in and said she was having breakfast with a possible source," Perry told him. "She didn't tell you?"

"I didn't see her before she left this morning," Richard told him. "Uncle Perry, Lois came home at 2:45 this morning. She said she was just catching up with Clark."

"And you think there was more going on?" Perry asked.

"That's what I'm asking you," Richard said. "Were they more than just writing partners before he left?"

Perry studied his nephew for a long moment before he answered. "I know that's what the scuttlebutt was when he left."

"Was it true?"

"I don't know," Perry told him. "I know they were close. But supposedly she was close to Superman, too."

"Uncle Perry, what am I supposed to do?" Richard asked. "I know I can't compete against Superman. But she spent the night with her ex-partner."

"Richard, what kind of relationship can you possibly have with Lois if you don't trust her?" Perry asked. "If she says nothing happened last night except talking, then that's all that happened. And don't even think about asking me to break up one of the best teams this paper has seen since Norcross and Judd."

Perry saw the resignation in Richard's face. The older man wished there was something he could do to help, but Richard was a big boy and Perry wasn't about to damage the paper to help him. It didn't bode well that Richard didn't trust his own fiancée with her writing partner. But the writing had been on the wall for some time in that relationship, even if his nephew refused to see it. After five years of engagement, Lois had steadfastly refused to set a wedding date.

"Richard, maybe you should wait until this problem she and Clark are looking into is handled?" Perry suggested.

"You're telling me to ignore the fact that my fiancée spent the night with another man?"

"I'm telling you to calm down and trust Lois's judgment."

-o-o-o-

Stark could see King and Carpenter through the broad windows of the Grand Hotel's main floor restaurant. That wasn't part of the plan and Stark didn't like it. Carpenter was a civilian and a loose cannon and Stark didn't like loose cannons.

Wallace's limo drove up. Stark's team was ready. He nodded to them and set the plan in motion. The men set off to get into position.

Stark had a few moments to consider his current problem. Carpenter had wanted in on this particular 'mission' but now was sitting openly with his current conquest. Stark was well aware of Carpenter's 'peccadilloes'. He'd had to take care of little 'problems' like this before. He hadn't liked it – they were messy and tended to come back and bite. Stark, not for the first time, mused that the time was coming soon when Carpenter would be a 'problem' he would have to take care of.

But not today.

He checked his watch. It was getting close to 'show' time. He crossed the driveway in front of the hotel entrance, crossed the terrazzo floor of the lobby to the restaurant. He waved away a waiter as he approached Carpenter's table.

"And who could possibly head such a body?" the woman, King, was saying to Carpenter.

Carpenter smiled at the woman, but Stark noted how the smarmy smile slipped when Carpenter noticed him standing at shoulder. Stark whispered into Carpenter's ear: "We're ready."

Carpenter nodded and turned to his female companion. "Excuse me. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Can I come with you?" the woman asked.

Carpenter patted her hand and gave her a patronizing smile. "Why don't you just order dessert for us?"

Stark felt her eyes on them as they walked out of the restaurant. She was a reporter and it was unlikely she would simply sit down and ignore what was going on around her. It wouldn't be long before Carpenter ordered _this_ problem 'handled'.

-o-o-o-

Lois impatiently waited for the cab to stop in front of the Grand Hotel. Then she was out of the car, running across to the entrance. She didn't have to see Clark to know he had paid the cabbie and was hurrying to catch up with her.

Linda was coming out of the restaurant as they crossed the lobby floor.

"What are you doing here?" Linda hissed at them. "You'll blow everything."

"Carpenter's going to kill Secretary Wallace," Clark told her.

Linda's expression said she didn't believe him.

"He's already written the editorial," Lois told her. "All he needs is your 'exclusive' report."

Linda's expression shifted to wide-eyed horror.

"Stay here," Clark ordered them. "I'm going in to warn the Secretary."

He took off at a fast lope before Lois could grab him or muster an argument. She stared after him. The old Clark had a tendency to disappear at the most inopportune times, but he was never known to run _towards_ danger. She wasn't sure what to make of this newly emerged aspect of his personality.

"'Stay here,'" Linda quoted wryly. "Guess we know who calls the shots on your team."

"You don't know anything," Lois told her.

"I just know what I see," Linda came back.

"Stay here," Lois ordered. "I'm going after Clark."

Linda grabbed her arm to keep her from leaving. "Nice try."

Lois glared at her. Then four men crossed the lobby to the elevator bank – Carpenter, Stark, and two men dressed as hotel employees.

"There they are," Linda hissed as the doors closed on the elevator. The floor indicator showed the elevator was going down. Lois headed for the nearest stairwell, Linda hot on her heels.

On the next level down, Lois opened the stairwell door and peered out. She spotted Carpenter and his companions as they disappeared through the swinging doors to one of the hotel kitchens.

Lois led the way to the doors and peeked through one of the portholes. Beyond was a commercial kitchen. Carpenter, Stark, and the two "hotel employees," were huddled around a steel table.

"One of us should notify the police. The other should stay on the story," Lois said. She hoped Clark had called them, but more likely he was trying to get hold of Superman.

"Great. You take the police."

"I was thinking you would handle that," Lois said.

"Think again," Linda said, pushing the kitchen door open. She dropped to her knees and crawled inside. Lois fumed as she followed.

"The police have been notified there's going to be an assassination attempt against Wallace," Stark announced.

"Then we need to call it off," one of the men said.

"No," Carpenter said. "We've got too much riding on this."

"But what about Superman?"

"Don't worry about Superman," Stark instructed. He pointed to the map spread out on the table. "You two set up here, and here. Fire when you hear my shot." He turned to Carpenter. "What about your 'friend?'"

Carpenter pulled out his cell phone and keyed in a number. "I'll take care of her."

Lois's gut clenched. There was something cold and implacable in Carpenter's voice and it occurred to her that Clark had been right. Carpenter would have no qualms about killing Linda – or her for that matter.

The two women had taken cover behind the steel counters and started to back out of the room. Suddenly, Linda's phone chimed. Horrified, she and Linda both grabbed for it but it was too late.

"Linda, dear," Carpenter said, looking down on them. "I guess I don't have to tell you I've been detained, do I?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5**

Within minutes Lois and Linda were sitting on the floor of the hotel's walk-in freezer, tied up back to back, hidden behind a tall stack of hamburgers in cases. Stark checked their bindings one last time as Carpenter watched.

"I can't tell you how truly sorry I am that things turned out this way," Carpenter told them. He didn't seem at all concerned about what was happening. "On the other hand, you two are going to be part of a fabulous forty-eight point headline. And don't waste your time yelling for Superman. Freezers are almost soundproof and he's not going to be around to hear you anyway."

He walked out, followed by Stark. Lois heard the heavy door thump closed behind them. The two women struggled against the ropes but Stark had done a professional job in tying them. The more they struggled, the tighter the ropes cut.

"What did he mean by that?" Lois wondered aloud.

"By what?"

"That Superman wouldn't be around to hear us."

"Carpenter doesn't like to take chances. He probably has something planned for Superman, too," Linda said.

Lois didn't remember how long it would take for hypothermia to set in but she knew the freezer's temperature was well below zero Fahrenheit. The light-weight suit she was wearing didn't afford much insulation. Richard and Jason would be devastated, not to mention Superman and Clark. And to die so stupidly – tied up in a freezer.

"Life is cruel," Lois muttered.

"Don't get philosophical," Linda groused. "It's never been your strength."

"Well, doesn't it strike you as ironic?" Lois asked. "That the two of us should have to die together?"

"We were best friends," Linda reminded her.

"_Were_."

Linda snorted. "Let's clear this up once and for all, okay?"

"Let's not and if there's anybody on the other side who asks us, let's just say we did."

"You think I stole Paul Bender from you. But I didn't," Linda said, obviously ignoring Lois's wishes. But that was just like Linda, ignoring other people's needs and wants. "He came on to me," Linda added.

"And you had no will power, huh?"

"None," Linda cheerfully admitted. "I would have done anything for Paul."

"And I guess you had no will power when you stole my story?"

"Okay. I'm weak. It doesn't mean I wasn't a good friend," Linda said. "It just means I wasn't as strong as you are."

"Wait a minute. You're backing into an apology by arguing that you stole a story and a guy because you were under the influence of your hormones and because I was your best girlfriend at the time that I should have forgiven you then and not make a big deal about it now?"

"Right," Linda agreed.

Lois couldn't feel her feet and the cold was creeping into her bones. Her breath was beginning to freeze on her face. But even half frozen she knew Linda's argument had major holes in it. Lois just wasn't in the mood to work them out.

"You are some piece of work, you know that?"

"Hey, I thought we were being honest here."

"Okay. I forgive you," Lois said. "But what about Clark?"

"I never cared about him," Linda said but there was something in her voice that told Lois she was lying. "Take him. He's yours."

"He's not mine to have."

"Well, you can have him if you want," Linda offered.

"I already have a fiancé," Lois reminded her. She was beginning to hope the cold would get to them fast. Otherwise, she was going to go quite mad with her unobtainable desire to choke the living daylights out of Linda King.

-o-o-o-

Clark had ordered Lois and Linda to stay put and out of trouble. He only hoped Linda had listened. He _knew_ Lois wouldn't. Clark had called Inspector Henderson at his private number at his office. The officer had taken Clark's – Superman's – warning seriously and the police were on their way. Wallace's people had been notified, but Clark didn't know exactly what Carpenter and Stark had planned.

Then he heard the emergency call, a controlled demolition of a condemned building had gone wrong in St. Albans, one of the small towns north of the city. He sped into the suit and headed north.

He was there in moments. The local fire and rescue were already there and it appeared the situation was well in hand. There was no fire to worry about, at least.

A quick look through the rubble confirmed there were no people trapped and no bodies except… He couldn't see into the basement or the sub-basement.

"Superman," one of the rescue people called, interrupting his survey. "We've been told there may be two kids trapped in the sub-basement."

"The building wasn't checked before it was brought down?" Superman asked.

"It was, but then we got a call that two kids were missing and may have been in the old fall out shelter in the sub-basement."

X-ray vision would be useless but he already knew that. He held up his hand to indicate he wanted silence as he concentrated on listening for any hint of sound emanating from the rubble.

A faint cry, but there was something odd about it. He crouched down and checked the underground area surrounding the remains of the building, locating the utilities, the sewer access. He needed to avoid those when he chose his path through the ground to get to them.

"Help Superman…" the cry continued. He focused on listening for heartbeats. He didn't find any heart sounds or body noises, just the repeated call for help. He concentrated on identifying the wrongness in the cry then realized what it was – the sound frequencies were limited. Although humans only heard a small portion of the audio spectrum, the natural human voice resonated in additional frequencies. Those were missing.

"There's no one there," Superman announced. "It's a hoax."

"How can you be sure?" one of the firemen asked.

"There's a cry for help but it's coming from a speaker. A small one by the sound of it. There are no heartbeats, no breathing."

He paused a moment, listening for Lois's heartbeat back in Metropolis. It was faint and slow and he almost hadn't caught it. Lois was in trouble. He didn't bother to say good-by as he shot into the air and back to Metropolis.

Superman scanned the area around the hotel for any sign of Lois. He saw Wallace and his entourage walking through the lobby, apparently heading for the limo at the front of the building. Then he spotted Lois and Linda in the freezer. The door had been padlocked but he broke it and pulled open the door. Lois and Linda were tied back to back and both women had slipped into near unconsciousness but they were both breathing and had strong though slow heartbeats.

He snapped the bindings and carried them both out of the freezer. A quick shot of mild heat vision was enough to warm them.

"You'll feel better in a few minutes," he assured both women.

Lois nodded, still only half aware. "You've got to... stop them. They're... Wallace…"

"I know," Superman said then took off. He didn't know why his warning to the police hadn't been heeded but he sped through the corridors and up the stairs to the hotel entrance.

Stark was on the roof of a building across the street from the hotel. From where he was Stark had a clear shot at anyone crossing the covered walkway. Superman saw Stark's finger on the trigger of a high powered rifle.

Secretary Wallace started toward his limo surrounded by his entourage of aides and bodyguards. Time had slowed to a crawl as it always did when he put on super speed. He saw a man dressed as a gardener slide a small gun from his jacket. On the other side of the limo another man, this one dressed as a hotel employee, also casually pulled out a small gun.

Stark pulled the trigger. So did the other two. In his time-slowed state, Superman could clearly see the trajectory of the bullets. He stepped in front of Wallace and snatched the projectiles out of the air.

The 'gardener' and 'hotel man' emptied their guns then dropped them and ran – straight into the arms of the police. Superman crushed the lead into a ball and tossed it away. He knew he was damaging evidence, but after the slugs hit his palms there wasn't much in the way of evidence in any case.

"Where'd _he_ come from?" Superman heard Carpenter say from inside a limo parked nearby. The limo's engine turned over and he grabbed the rear of the car to keep it from moving. He saw Carpenter turn around to look out the back window and he smiled. The driver had the good sense to turn off the engine as police officers ran up to take custody of them.

"Thank you Superman," Wallace said, coming up to shake his hand. "My people thought the police warning was another hoax." He peered at Carpenter being handcuffed. "I can't believe you'd do something like this. Why?"

"Because mealy-mouth fools like you are destroying this country," Carpenter spat. "You would have made a great martyr…"

"That's enough," one of the officers ordered as he walked Carpenter away from Wallace.

"Superman!" Linda King called from the main hotel entrance doors. Lois was standing with her, glowering at her. Both women looked relatively unscathed by their ordeal.

Linda ran over to him and threw her arms around him. "Superman, how can I… _we_… ever thank you?"

"That's quite all right, ma'am," he said. Now Lois was glowering at _him_. Linda reached up and pulled him down, kissing him fully on the mouth.

"Thank you," she breathed, letting him go.

He nodded to Linda and Lois and sped into the air. He needed to make his exit and get back as Clark before someone realized he'd gone missing.

-o-o-o-

The police scanner had burst into a flurry of activity, multiple patrol cars being dispatched to the Grand Hotel. Richard looked out into the newsroom. Lois wasn't at her desk and she didn't recall seeing her coming back into the newsroom after leaving for her breakfast meeting with Clark and Linda King.

Richard grabbed his jacket and wallet and ran out of his office, ignoring the curious looks he was getting from the reporters at their desks. The Grand Hotel was where Secretary Wallace was staying. He grabbed Jimmy's attention and both men ran to the elevators. On the way down Richard tried to call Lois's cell phone. It went to voice mail.

Richard heart sank. There was no doubt in his mind that Lois was at the Grand Hotel chasing down Secretary Wallace and whatever connection he had with Preston Carpenter. And the police were headed there. Trust Lois to be in the thick of things.

The cab dropped Richard and Jimmy off a block away from the hotel. The streets were blocked by police cars. The two men wove their way closer to the building, flashing their press passes.

Then Richard heard the sharp retorts of gunshots. Jimmy and the police officers closest to them ducked behind the cars, looking around for the gunmen. From where he was standing Richard spotted Superman standing in front of Secretary Wallace, apparently catching the bullets in his bare hands. Then the Man of Steel vanished only to reappear holding the rear end of a limousine to keep it from leaving. Uniformed officers came and arrested the occupants. One of them was Preston Carpenter.

Richard spotted Lois and a blonde woman he assumed to be Linda King coming out of the hotel's main entrance. Clark was no where to be seen. Richard watched as the blonde grabbed Superman and gave him a kiss on the mouth. The superhero seemed surprised and a little taken aback by the gesture. But it was Lois's expression that caught Richard's attention. She was glowering at the woman.

Superman sped away and Richard had the impression he was in a hurry to get away from the scene. Away from the two women.

"Damn," Jimmy muttered from beside him. "He didn't stick around long enough for me to get a picture."

"Lois!" Richard yelled to get his fiancée's attention. She waved at him and he hurried over to her. "Are you okay? Where's Clark?" he asked.

"Right here," Clark said from behind him. "I, uh, called Inspector Henderson and let him know what was going down. Apparently Wallace's people didn't believe there was a threat."

Lois snorted. "Good thing whatever Carpenter had planned for Superman didn't work," she said. "Carpenter really was willing to do _anything_ to pull this off."

"It helped that Superman knew Carpenter had something planned," Clark said. "It made it easier to spot the hoax."

"Hoax?" Linda asked too brightly. Again Lois was glowering and Richard wondered what it was between the two women that could evoke such a strong reaction from his fiancée.

"Planet exclusive," Clark told them. "You can read about it in the next edition."

Linda pouted prettily.

"But I thought we were partners," she said, walking her fingers up Clark's tie. He took her hand and moved it away from his chest. "We made a great team," she added.

"I have a partner," Clark said.

Linda's eyes narrowed as she gave Clark a dark look. Richard suspected she was a woman who didn't get turned down very often. Getting turned down by an allegedly unsophisticated farm boy had to hurt.

Linda pulled her hand back and hitched her purse higher on her shoulder. "Well, if you ever change your mind…"

"We know where to find you," Lois announced. Linda shrugged and walked off. One of the detectives intercepted her to take her statement.

Richard spotted Inspector Henderson coming toward them, no doubt to take Lois and Clark's statements as well.

"Lois, do you want me to stay while you and Clark make your statements?" he asked.

Lois shook her head. "We'll meet you back at the office." She turned to grab Clark's arm as though to keep him from vanishing on her. Then she frowned. "Clark, are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," the tall man said. She put the back of her free hand to his forehead. He brushed it away.

"I'm just a little tired, that's all," Clark told her. "Not enough sleep the past couple days, I guess."

She studied his face for a long moment before nodding worriedly. But Richard agreed with Lois: Clark wasn't looking well. He was pale, his skin was splotchy, and there was a tenseness around his mouth that Richard didn't recall ever seeing before.

"Maybe Perry will let you take a little time off when the story's turned in," Richard suggested.

"I'm sure I'll be fine in the morning," Clark protested mildly. But Richard saw the look Lois was giving her partner. She didn't believe Clark any more than Richard did.

-o-o-o-

Giving Henderson their statements didn't take long. Since Clark had called to let him know what they'd uncovered about the plot against Wallace, Lois didn't even have to sit through the normal lecture of 'the police are responsible for investigating criminal matters'.

Lois managed to chivvy Clark into a cab back to the Planet. Her partner wasn't looking any better even though he kept denying he wasn't feeling well. Lois just hoped they could get through writing up the story. Then she promptly felt guilty for putting the story first.

Clark was looking like death warmed over but he gamely smiled at her as they entered the elevator that would take them to the newsroom floor.

Richard was waiting for them. "We've beaten everybody to the punch on this one," he announced. "We're just waiting for your story for the next edition and AP."

Lois nodded and settled in at her desk. Then she felt hands on her shoulders and a kiss on her cheek.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Richard asked softly.

"I'm fine," Lois assured him. But she knew she wasn't being quite truthful with him. Physically she was fine, thanks to Superman's timely rescue, but emotionally… Emotionally she wasn't sure what was going on. She'd been insanely jealous of Linda's attention to _Clark_. Even Linda grabbing Superman and trying for a lip-lock hadn't evoked as strong a reaction.

She was engaged to Richard, for heaven's sake. He was a good man, kind and intelligent, trustworthy. He was a good father to Jason. Richard was a great catch. Everyone said so. So why did she have the feeling she wouldn't have been nearly as bothered if it had been _Richard_ Linda had set her sights on?

Clark grabbed his chair and brought it over to sit beside her so they could work on the story together. It went together quickly. Clark corrected the misspellings without additional comment. Others in the newsroom were rarely as charitable when Lois's train of thought outpaced her internal thesaurus. But Clark seemed to understand.

Finally, Lois hit the 'print' button and sat back to peer at Clark. He wasn't looking any better. Jimmy had brought them both coffee, but Clark hadn't touched his.

"Why don't I have Richard drive you home," Lois offered. "He's got to go get Jason from after-care anyway. It's not too far out of the way to drop you off."

Clark shook his head. "I've got to write up the story on the hoax Carpenter and Stark put together to get Superman out of the way."

"You're sure?"

"Um, Lois, do you think Perry would even let me out of the building if he knew I had another Superman exclusive to hand in?"

Lois's reply was interrupted by Perry's crow of delight as he skimmed the freshly printed pages. "Beautiful! We'll bury them."

She knew Perry would be even more pleased when he found out about Clark's exclusive. Clark had scooted his chair back to his own desk and was skimming his notes as he waited for his own computer to boot up.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Lois asked.

Clark gave her a surprised look before shaking his head again and picking up his phone. Then he stopped a moment. "I'll be fine. Go pick up Jason, have a nice dinner with Richard. I'll see you in the morning."

"You're sure?"

"Go."

-o-o-o-

Clark already had the story composed in his head before he even opened the blank document in his word processor. A call to the demolition company in St. Albans confirmed Superman's observation that the calls for help came from a small recorder and speaker set up. Another call to confirm the initial 9-1-1 call about two missing children was also a hoax.

One additional fact from the demolition company: when they finally got a camera into the void the children had allegedly trapped in, they saw glowing green crystals next to the CD player and speakers. The 9-1-1 call had not only been a hoax, it was part of a potentially fatal trap for Superman.

_If I hadn't already suspected something, I would have opened up the lead-lined vault and been exposed to the kryptonite. I wouldn't have made it back in time to save Lois or Wallace._

Clark debated a moment on whether or not he should include the part about the kryptonite. He didn't want to give the petty crooks any more ideas than they already had. But the public needed to know that Superman was being targeted. The public's need won out. It really hadn't been much a debate. The public needed to know, and understand, why Superman was being more cautious than he had been before he left for Krypton.

But then, there were parts of Metropolis that the Metropolis Fire Department didn't respond to automatically. The old fire alarms in Suicide Slum had been deactivated and the MFD didn't drive in to that area at all unless human being was on the other end of the 9-1-1 call and stayed on the line. Too many fire fighters had been killed or injured driving into ambushes.

Clark quickly typed up the story and sent it to the printer for Perry.

The older man skimmed the pages then looked over at him. "Does Superman have any idea where the kryptonite came from?"

"As far as I know, he didn't even know it was there," Clark responded. His head was aching and he was sweating. "The local police are looking into a 9-1-1 call but I doubt they'll come up with a link to Carpenter or Stark. Personally, I think that someone involved in the building demolition was part of it, too. But that's just an educated hunch. I've got nothing to back it with."

Perry watched him through narrowed eyes as if weighing Clark's statement. "You think it was more than just getting him out of the way for Wallace's murder?"

Clark nodded, fighting back the dizziness the motion caused. "Have Superman open the vault, get exposed to the kryptonite and then a 'defective' charge goes off? Makes sense, doesn't it?"

"Too much sense," Perry agreed. "I want you and Lois to stay on the Carpenter story _and_ this hoax. The hoax may not lead to anything else, but I'd sure love to nail that bastard's hide to the wall with an attempted murder charge on top of everything else."

Perry stopped and Clark tried to look less miserable than he felt. And he felt awful, almost like there was kryptonite somewhere near. But he was certain there was none in the building.

"Son, I'd tell you to go see a doctor if I honestly thought you'd do it," Perry said after a long moment. "Go home, get some rest. Remember to call in if you're still under the weather in the morning. And for God's sake, get your butt to a hospital if you get any worse."

"Yes, sir," Clark managed to say. He grabbed his briefcase and coat and headed for the stairwell around the corner from the elevator. That's when he realized the horrible truth. Not only was he sick, but his powers were gone. And he had no real idea how or why. All he could hope for was that he would find the kryptonite and dispose of it. But he had no idea where it might be.


	6. Chapter 6

Lois chuckled at the headline: 'NEW AGE KANE NIPPED IN BUD'.

"Trust Perry to write a headline nobody under thirty has any clue about," she commented to Richard over her coffee. They'd managed to get out of the house early enough to drop Jason off at school and still have time to stop at the coffee shop in the Daily Planet lobby. After the previous week, it was nice to have some moments of normalcy before entering the fray of the newsroom. Even Richard seemed calmer than he'd been over the past few days.

Lois scanned the article more closely then swore.

"What?" Richard asked.

"She did it again," Lois told him, holding the paper out to him. "The byline. 'By Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Special contribution by Linda King.' Right, sure." She didn't bother to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

"She must have given Perry and Clark some additional material after we left," Richard said reasonably.

"What information? I don't see anything there I don't recognize," Lois spat. She looked beyond Richard to the lobby elevators. One set of doors had opened and she spotted Perry and Linda coming out the elevator car.

"Speaking of the devil," Lois muttered. Perry looked over and apparently caught Lois staring at him. He disappeared back inside the elevator car. Linda sauntered over to where Lois and Richard were seated.

"Mister White is such a generous man," the blonde woman gushed.

"You have no shame," Lois stated.

"Yes, I do!" Linda protested. "Not a lot, but some." She turned to smile at Richard.

"Linda, I'd like to introduce my fiancé, Richard White. Richard, Linda King."

Richard nodded politely. "Ms. King… It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you."

"I'm sure you have," Linda said without losing her smile.

"So, what's next for you?" Richard asked.

"Top Copy wants me back," Linda told him. "I think I'll take it. I don't think I'm cut out for the City Beat." She looked around the coffee shop as though looking for someone. "I was hoping to talk to Clark. We did make a great team and I'm sure Diana would love to have him. In more ways than one, I'm sure."

Lois couldn't help herself as she scowled at the other woman.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Linda protested. "Clark made his position very clear yesterday. He's your partner."

"Yes, he is," Lois agreed.

Linda took a deep breath and blew it out her nose as though steeling herself for an ordeal. "Lois, I have something to say to you."

"Don't."

"When you told me you accepted my apology," Linda went on, ignoring the warning. "It meant a lot to me."

"Not to me," Lois stated. "I thought I was dying and I wanted to clean the slate."

Lois heard Richard's surprised gasp but her attention was on Linda.

"Look at it this way, Lois. Maybe you're the reporter you are because of the competition you felt with me," Linda said.

"Not only am I supposed to accept your lame apology, but now I'm supposed to thank you?"

"Lois…" Richard warned.

She took a deep breath and schooled her expression to something more neutral than the annoyed disgust the woman aroused in her. "Good luck at Top Copy. I'll let Clark know you were looking for him to say good bye."

"Yes, do that." The woman smiled at her and Richard then strolled off.

"I simply cannot believe her," Lois complained as soon as Linda was out of earshot.

"Lois, if you let her get to you, then she's won." Richard said.

"I know," Lois admitted. "But I just have a bad feeling about her. And I can't explain why."

-o-o-o-

"Richard, Lois," Perry yelled as soon as he caught sight of them coming into the newsroom. "Have either of you heard from Kent?"

His nephew and his star reporter both gave him blank looks.

"He hasn't come in?" Richard asked.

Perry glared at him. "If he had come in, I wouldn't be looking for him."

As the pair stepped closer he dropped his voice. "I called his building manager. It doesn't look like Kent even made it home last night."

"I'll call his mom," Lois volunteered. "One of you call Henderson and then we can check with the hospitals." Lois headed to her desk without bothering to check if the men were following her instructions.

Perry gave Richard a sardonic look. "Trust Lois to get to the meat of things. I'll call Henderson, see if a John Doe Clark's height, weight, and coloring has shown up. You start on the hospitals."

Half an hour later, there was still no word concerning Clark's whereabouts. His mom in Kansas hadn't heard from him and admitted being worried. No bodies matching Clark's description had come to the attention of the MPD over night. Not that Clark was likely to get into that sort of trouble. The man was famous for his caution, even though he covered volatile hostage situations and crime scenes on a regular basis. He'd even been in the middle of the last prison riot on Stryker's island. The man was a puzzle, but he was also one of the best.

Richard and Lois had also drawn blanks at the hospitals. No one matching Clark's description had been admitted over night.

"Perry, are we even sure he left the building?" Lois asked after her final hospital call. "I mean, he was pretty sick. What if he… what if he collapsed somewhere?"

"Lois, this is a very big building," Perry reminded her.

"At least Clark won't be trying to _not_ be found," she said. There was a grimly sardonic note in her voice and Perry didn't have to guess the cause.

Three weeks before, Jason had decided to play hide-n-seek with Clark and Jimmy while Lois and Richard were out of the building. Jason had proven he could hide _very_ well, forcing Perry to instigate an all out search for him. Lois had been furious – with Jason for hiding and making everyone worry, Clark and Jimmy for losing him, and Perry for not notifying her immediately that her son was missing.

"Okay," Perry began, mind working over the possibilities. "If he collapsed in an elevator, or one of the offices, he would have been found already and I would have gotten a call from security. And security claims they haven't spotted him in any of the monitored areas."

"That still leaves a lot of places, including parts of the stairwells," Richard said. "Lois and I will take the center stairs and go up. We'll check the floors as we go. We can stay in contact with our cells."

Perry nodded agreement.

"Olsen!"

The young photographer's head came up, eyes wide with worry.

"You're with me," Perry yelled.

"Yes, sir," Jimmy said, grabbing his camera.

"You won't need the camera," Perry added, striding toward the glass doors of the newsroom. Jimmy had to hurry to keep pace with him.

"What's going on?"

"Kent's missing and we think he may not have even gotten out of the building last night."

Jimmy's expression turned worried. "He was awfully sick yesterday."

"I know."

"Maybe we should call Superman," Jimmy suggested. "I mean, he and Lois and Clark are pretty close, supposedly."

Perry stopped and stared at the younger man. Something had just clicked in his mind. _6'4", 220 some odd pounds, black hair, blue eyes. They came back to Metropolis the same day. _

"Olsen, have any Superman sightings come over the wire this morning?" Perry asked.

"Not that I know of," Jimmy told him. "But there are lots of times he's doing things that don't get reported until a lot later. Why?"

"No reason," Perry responded. It had been a silly idea, really. Superman working as one of his reporters? Ridiculous.

But then, the press release Superman had given Richard had been written, not in AP Style, but in old-fashioned Daily Planet Style. Not many of the younger people on the staff had mastered it, Lois, Clark, and Richard being among the few who had. The newer copy editors had been campaigning for the paper to move to the less restrictive and less formal AP style. So far Perry had managed to keep them toeing the line. The old style had served the Planet well for many years and its readers expected the Daily Planet to have a more formal voice than the Star or the other east coast dailies.

Perry mentally shook himself. Ridiculous idea. Obviously Kent had written the press release _for_ Superman. There was no other explanation, was there?

Perry and Jimmy had managed to get five floors down when Perry's cell chirped. The caller ID indicated it was Richard.

"Yes?"

"We found him," Richard announced over the tiny speaker.

In the background Perry could hear Lois's announcement: "I found a pulse."

"He's alive, barely," Richard continued. "We're up by the roof access, but God only knows what he was doing here."

"Olsen and I will be right there," Perry promised.

"Why would Clark have been heading for the roof?" Jimmy wondered aloud.

Perry just shook his head. _Why indeed?_

-o-o-o-

"Perry and Jimmy are coming," Richard told Lois. She was still crouched beside what looked more like a rumpled heap of fabric than a human being. If they'd been in an alley somewhere instead of a stairwell heading to the roof of the Daily Planet Building, neither of them would have paid much attention in the dim lighting.

"Clark?" Lois was saying. "Can you hear me?"

The heap stirred and resolved itself into a more human shape as Clark's head came up. His over long hair was in his face, and Lois brushed it aside much as she always did for Jason. The man's eyes were sunken and overly bright behind his glasses.

Richard watched the other man try to focus on what was happening.

"Lois?" Clark's voice was a harsh whisper.

"It's okay," Lois assured him gently. "We're going to get you out of here and to the hospital."

Richard was surprised at Clark's reaction to Lois's innocent assurance. He would have sworn the other man didn't have the strength left but he managed to push Lois away from him and began to struggle to his feet.

"No… No hospital, no doctors," Clark rasped out.

Lois clambered to her feet. "Clark, you're sick. You have an ungodly fever and you spent the night on a freaking stair landing!"

"No hospital," Clark repeated. "I just need…"

"What do you need?" Richard asked.

Clark seemed surprised to realize that Lois wasn't alone. "I need some… I just need some rest," the other man managed to say, but he was wheezing the way Jason did during one of his attacks.

"Clark, if you don't get medical attention, you may die," Lois stated. Richard could hear the tremor in her voice. "I know you know this."

Clark's wheezing was getting worse. And oddly, it sounded familiar. Richard had heard that sound before. Then it came to him exactly where and when he had heard it. The pieces fell together. It had been staring him in the face the entire time. _6'4", 220 some odd pounds, black hair, blue eyes. They came back to Metropolis the same day. No wonder Jason thinks the world of him. No wonder Lois is so protective of him. Shit._

"No hospital," Richard agreed, pulling out his cell phone again and punching in a number.

"Richard, you can't be serious," Lois protested. "He needs medical attention!"

"I didn't say he didn't need a doctor," Richard corrected her. "I'm putting a call in to Doc Watson. He's Jason's doctor." The explanation was for Clark who managed a weak glower.

"Richard?" Perry's voice called out from somewhere below.

"Up here," Richard called back. After a moment, Perry and Jimmy appeared.

"What the devil are you doing up here?" Perry demanded.

Richard shrugged. "We're gonna need help getting him out of here."

"No hospital," Clark repeated weakly.

"No hospital," Richard agreed again as he helped Clark to his feet. Perry came around to Clark's other side and between the two of them they managed to get Clark down the steps to the fire door and the top office floor of the building.

Richard's cell phone chimed as they entered the elevator – Doctor John Watson. Richard flipped open his phone. "Doc, Lois and I need a big favor. Will you do a house call?"

"Is it Jason?" Watson asked.

"No, it's his biological father. He's really sick and a hospital is not an option," Richard explained. He ignored Lois's wide-eyed stare in his direction.

"The symptoms?"

"High fever and chills, weakness, and he's wheezing like Jason does when he's having an attack," Richard told him.

There was a sigh, then: "Where is he?"

Richard gave the other man Clark's address. "We should be there in about half an hour," he added.

"Keep him harm and hydrated," Watson ordered. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

Richard folded up his phone. Then he realized that not just Lois was staring at him. Jimmy seemed thunderstruck. Perry just looked bemused.

"Clark is…" Jimmy began.

"Good Lord, Jimmy," Richard said. "Who did you think Jason's father really was, Superman?"

Richard and Perry managed to man-handle Clark into the back of Lois's Audi. The tall man had stopped shivering quite as much, but he seemed to have lapsed into near unconsciousness. Lois climbed into the back seat to tend to the sick man while Richard slid behind the steering wheel.

He heard Lois murmuring reassurances to Clark. It was the same words and tone she used with Jason when he was ill. _'It's okay baby…'_

When they were close to Clark's apartment, Lois finally spoke up to address Richard. "Why did you… why did you tell Perry and Jimmy and Doc that _Clark_ was Jason's father?"

"Lois, are you still trying to tell me he isn't?"

She didn't give him an answer. He hadn't thought she would.

-o-o-o-

_Clark was Jason's father? But that meant that…_

Clark was shivering again. The puzzle of how _Clark_ could be Jason's father would have to wait.

Richard pulled the car into the parking garage beneath Clark's apartment building. Between the two of them, they managed to get Clark out of the car and up to his apartment.

"His bedroom's up there." Lois pointed out the loft and the narrow steps leading to it.

Richard sighed. "He would sleep in an aerie," he complained mildly.

Clark roused enough to help them get him up the stairs. Richard helped him out of the overcoat and suit jacket while Lois rummaged through the dresser and found a pair of gray sweats. Clark was protesting he could manage on his own, but Lois didn't believe a word of it and she knew Richard didn't either.

"Doc said to keep him warm and hydrated," Richard reminded her. Clark was finally in his bed – a futon on the floor with quilts thrown over it – and had curled up in to a tight ball. At least he wasn't shivering as hard as he had been. Lois stared at the sick man. Without his glasses, the resemblance to Superman was even more striking. _I've been fooled all this time by a pair of glasses and a timid attitude?_

"Lois?" Richard asked, bringing her back to the here and now.

"I'll see what he's got downstairs," Lois offered, heading down to the main floor. _Clark was Jason's father._ It was obvious when she actually stopped and looked at it. Everyone in the newsroom thought he was. She was the only hold out, insisting nothing had happened between them.

_Superman happened_. That's all Clark would tell her about the weekend at the Honeymoon Haven. Superman happened. Then nine months later, Jason 'happened'.

It was giving her a headache.

To Lois's surprise she found ginger ale and a two-liter of generic lemon lime soda in the refrigerator. A quick check of the cupboards revealed simple, inexpensive, dishware and glassware. She selected a tumbler and filled it with ice and soda flattened with cold water – the way she did for Jason when he wasn't feeling well. She also found a small box of straws that had never been opened. She tore open the box and grabbed two.

Lois had gotten nearly all the liquid inside Clark – not an easy task considering his lack of cooperation – when there was a knock on the door.

Richard hurried away, down the stairs. After a moment she heard the door open and Richard say: "Thanks for coming."

"You made it sound urgent…" Doc Watson said. "Jason's _father_ is sick?"

"I'll be right back," Lois promised Clark even though she wasn't sure he was paying much attention to her. He was propped up against the wall, head back, eyes closed. He looked terrible.

Lois headed for the main floor.

"You told me Jason's father was …" Watson was saying.

"I did, and he is, even if I still have no idea how it happened," Lois told him. She nodded to the upper level. "He's upstairs."

She watched Watson head up the stairs. Watson was a retired military doctor and a good friend of her father, the General. He had also been the Lane family physician since before Lois was even born. He had delivered her and Lucy, Lucy's first child, and then Jason. He had set Lois's broken arm when she was ten, prescribed birth control pills for her without telling her father when she turned fifteen, held her hand when she discovered she was pregnant. He was the only person she had told of her suspicions that she'd slept with Superman – even though the only evidence she'd had at the time was dreams of a crystal palace, of Superman watching her with love in his eyes, and the fact that she was pregnant and he was missing.

She sat down on the burgundy ottoman and watched Richard inspect the bookshelves. He pulled out one, opened it and put it back. "I wonder how many languages he knows," Richard said.

"Over three hundred," Lois answered automatically. She wasn't sure how she knew, but it seemed right.

"We really need to talk," he said after a moment.

"Not now, Richard."

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?" she retorted, keeping her voice low. "That I got knocked up and I don't remember how? You've known that since we first got together and now you're throwing it back in my face because the culprit really does turn out to be _Clark_?"

"No. That you still love him. You told me you didn't, remember?"

"Richard, this is neither the time nor the place to be discussing this."

"Will there ever be a good time or place?" Richard asked in return.

Lois had to admit he was right. There would never be good time or place to have the discussion they needed to have. And it didn't help that she wasn't sure of her own feelings. She had told Richard she hadn't loved Superman, had _never_ loved the larger-than-life hero. At the time she was hurt and angry – at Richard for bringing up the subject of her former relationship with Superman, and at Superman for vanishing without a word six years before. Only, he _had_ left word. It had simply gotten lost in transit.

"Lois…"

Richard's voice intruded on her thoughts.

"I love you, you know that," he was saying. "With all my heart. But I've always had the feeling it wasn't mutual, that you were holding back on committing to _us_ because you were hoping that Jason's real father would sweep back into your life."

"That's not true," she said, but her protest sounded weak even to herself.

"Then why haven't we set a date to get married?"

She didn't have an answer to that.

"I rest my case," he said quietly.

They both looked up as Doc Watson made his way down the steep steps.

"That is one very sick young man," Watson said. "It would be nice to have x-rays to confirm it, but everything points to pneumonia. I've taken some samples and we'll see if we can culture the little bugger that's causing this. I'm also starting him on a course of the same antibiotics I prescribed for Jason last year when he had his lung infection. With any luck, that'll knock the infection down."

"He has pneumonia?" Richard asked. "But how's that possible? I mean, he's…"

Watson scratched his head. "Pneumonia is common in people with compromised immune systems, AIDs patients, transplant patients, cancer patients on chemo, radiation victims. Now, I'm just making an educated guess here, but has he been in contact with a source of radiation that could harm him?"

"Not that we know of," Lois told him. "They did find kryptonite where the two kids where supposed to have been trapped, but he wasn't exposed to it."

Watson shook his head, mouth pulled into a grimace. "Lois, either that young man up there isn't who you indicated he is, _or_ he was exposed to something that compromised his immune system badly enough he could contract an Earth disease, or he has contracted something so dangerously virulent that I don't want to think what it could do to a human being."

"If it was that virulent, wouldn't Lois and I be showing symptoms?" Richard asked. "I mean, we've spent a lot of time with him recently."

"It depends on the incubation period, but you're probably right," Watson said. "Is there a way he could have ingested the poison? Maybe someone gave him something to eat that was contaminated?"

"It's possible but I doubt it," Lois said, casting her mind back to the day before. Clark had looked ill when he caught up with her and Linda yesterday following Carpenter's arrest.

_Linda had run over to Superman, throwing her arms around the blue clad hero. "Superman, how can I… we… ever thank you?" She reached up and pulled him down, kissing him fully on the mouth._

"Linda King," Lois announced. "She put on fresh lipstick as we were leaving the hotel yesterday… Just before she grabbed Superman and kissed him on the mouth."

"Lois, I know you don't like the woman…" Richard began.

"It's the only thing that makes sense," Lois argued. "The question is why would she do it unless…"

"Unless…" Richard prompted.

"According to Clark's sources, Linda King is a 'person of interest' in a series of assassinations of witnesses against Intergang," Lois said. "And since he came back, Superman has been instrumental in severely damaging Intergang's operations in Metropolis. What if the reason she was in town wasn't to help Carpenter take down the Planet, but to get herself into position to take down Superman?"

"There're a lot of ifs there," Richard pointed out.

"I know," Lois admitted. She took a deep breath and blew it out her nose. Lois knew what she needed to do and she knew Richard wasn't going to like it but that was _his_ problem. She would deal with her own issues with Clark/Superman, or whatever his real name was, later. Assuming there _was_ a later.

"I'm going to need my lap top," she told Richard. "Tell Perry what's going on and that I'll be working from here."

"Lois!"

"Somebody has to stay with him if only to call 9-1-1 if he gets any worse," she pointed out. "And I can do my work anywhere with power and internet access and we both know it."


End file.
